


We Don't Believe

by PastelMess



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drug Use, M/M, actor!Josh, actor!tyler, but also normal josh and tyler, but also real universe, idk it makes more sense just read, punk tyler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-04-14 06:06:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 33,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4553583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastelMess/pseuds/PastelMess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Somehow Tyler and Josh find themselves in a world where they're actors on a TV show about their lives. Not only that, but Josh is pretty darn sure some creepy shop owner cursed them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 001

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my God, I am so excited for this! I hope you like it!
> 
> (And yeah, The French Mistake might have been my inspiration.)

“Are you kidding me Tyler?” Josh complains as Tyler pulls him into a small, quaint store called “Andy’s Antiques.” They were in Columbus for one day, _one frickin’ day_ , for a sold out hometown show and Tyler was pulling Josh into a store he was pretty sure no one under the age of seventy ever entered.

“Come on Josh, it’ll be cool. Think of all the old stuff in there. You could find an old telescope for your late night UFO hunting.” Tyler wiggles his eyebrows, earning himself a scowl from Josh.

“We have a show tonight. We’re on a tour. Did you forget about that?”

Instead of answering, Tyler pushes open the door to the store. A bell rings, signaling their entrance.

The store seems to be empty. There isn’t even a person at the checkout counter. The store reeks of old people smell and Josh can’t wait to leave. There is so much junk scattered throughout the store not organized in any manner that it drives Josh nuts. How were you expected to find anything in this damn place?

“Hello?” Tyler calls out, but silence is his reply. He shares a confused glance with Josh before shrugging and skipping around a metal safe. Josh sighs again. He loves Tyler, he really does, but sometimes he has to question his friend’s sanity.

Josh constantly checks his bare wrist like it’ll have the time stamped on it, but unfortunately that never happens. Five minutes have passed and it feels like five thousand hours.

“Are you almost done?”

“You’re such a downer Josh! Look at all the cool stuff in this place.” Tyler flashes him a toothy grin before turning back around to the jewelry covering the shelf. Old chain necklaces and scarred leather bracelets; Tyler wonders how long it’s been around. He wonders if Jenna would be interested in any of this.

“There is nothing cool about a bunch of old junk,” Josh replies. He resorts to grumbling under his breath.

“Hey, do you think-” Tyler stops himself because he’s pretty sure he just discovered the greatest thing known to man. It’s a pendant, covered in a floral design. The best part is the chain, detailed in tiny flowers.

He has to have it.

“Josh!” he waves Josh over frantically, clutching the pendant in his hand like it’s Pandora’s box. Josh groans, but grants Tyler his request.

If Josh rolls his eyes one more time, they might get stuck.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Josh knows Tyler has some weird obsession with flowers, but this, he can’t be serious. This has to be a joke.

“It’s cool, right? I wonder how old it is.”

“1945,” someone announces proudly, and the bandmates turned around to see an elderly man with a head full of grey hair hobbling into the room. He leans his entire weight on a skinny wooden cane. “That’s a personal favourite of mine. It’s beautiful, no? A perfect gift for a wife or mother.”

“That’s not his intention,” Josh mumbles. Tyler narrows his eyes at him before turning to answer the old man.

“It is really nice. How much?”

The man grins, clasping his hands together. “For you my boy, it’s on the house. You’re the first person to come here in weeks. Please, it’s my gift.”

Tyler sighs. “Please sir, let me pay. I’ve got plenty of money.” he goes to pull out his wallet to prove it, but the old man waves off his kind gesture.

“No no no, I’m serious. It’s never going to be sold anyways. With you, at least I’ll know it’s in good hands.” he leans over to shakily rest a hand on top of Tyler’s. “Please. Take it.”

Tyler doesn’t want to take it from him, but if the man is requesting, he doesn’t want to disappoint him. He could have a heart attack or something.

So instead, he smiles. “Thank you. That’s really nice of you.”

The old man pulls away, returning the smile. Then his expression darkens. “Be careful with that, Tyler Joseph.” Then Josh and Tyler are leaving the store, darting into the hot and humid Ohio air. It isn’t until they are outside that Tyler realizes that he never gave the man his name.

“He knew my name,” Tyler points out as they walk down the street back to the bus. He keeps fumbling with the pendant now in his pocket.

“Not sure if you knew this, but a lot of people know your name.”

“Yeah, but he was like, old.”

“Don’t make me explain how grandchildren work.”

“Why are you so mean?” Tyler shoves Josh playfully off the sidewalk, moving quicker so Josh struggles to catch up.

“Why are _you_ so mean?” is Josh’s rebuttal after a few seconds. It’s not his best work, he’ll admit that.

“I’m not. I’m just wondering.”

“That guy was creepy.” Josh shivers. “Did you see his face when he said that? ‘Be careful with that, Tyler Joseph.’” Josh mimics the old man’s voice, bending over and shuffling along the sidewalk. Tyler rolls his eyes.

“He was nice. Do you think he was Andy?”

“Honestly, I think he’s the reason that store reeks of old people.”

“Even if his grandchildren did know about me, how would he even remember?”

Josh pats Tyler on the back. “Just because you’re old doesn’t mean you can’t remember.” Then he swats at Tyler’s head and darts down the sidewalk, laughing loudly at Tyler’s grumbling remarks.

***

The show they’re playing is sold out, and the arena is _huge._

Needless to say, it makes sense why they’re both a little nervous.

Josh paces back and forth in the green room, fingers every so slightly toying with the red makeup around his eyes as Tyler twists his wedding ring around his finger. The paint hasn’t fully dried yet, so he knows he’s messing it up, but he doesn’t really care.

Under his shirt is the pendant, chain loose around his neck. It’s cool and heavy against his skin, and Tyler loves it.

Josh is still a grumbling little shit.

“I can’t believe you’re wearing that. Why am I friends with you?”

“It’s from 1945 Joshua, and that is frickin’ sick. You can’t deny that. Besides, it’s got flowers on it. It’s cool. And you’re friends with me because I’m your greatest inspiration.”

Josh scoffs. “Oh boy. You really hit that nail on the head.”

Tyler is about to respond with a snarky comment when a crew member pops his head into the room with a small smile. “It’s time.”

Josh and Tyler look at one another with a shaky glare before Tyler is pushing up off the couch with a deep breath. They do their handshake quickly, the crew member watching highly impressed before the two are whisked down the hallway.

They can hear screaming getting louder and louder as they get to the stage. At first, that had freaked the two of them out. But now, it was music to their ears.

Before Josh goes out on stage, Tyler hooks his fingers under his arm. He’s fully aware he’s probably staining it with paint, but this is important.

He rests his forehead against Josh’s gently. “That’s a lot of people out there.”

“You’re going to do fine Ty. Just like you do every night.”

Tyler breathes in through his nose and out through his nose, eyes fluttering closed. “I know, I know. Just, good luck. Drum hard.”

“You know I will.” Josh gives him a reassuring smile before pulling away. The screams increase in volume as Josh scrolls across the stage and climbs over his drumset.

The music starts, and with one last breath Tyler is following his best friend onto the stage.

***

Things seem normal.

The show is moving perfectly fine. People are cheering, the crowd is participating, and Tyler hasn’t fallen once. In fact, not to be cocky, but Tyler thinks this is his best performance ever.

“So we’re about halfway through our set, but we’ve got a few more songs we’d like to play for you, if you’d be okay with that.” The crowd responds with cheers and hollers. “Wonderful.”

Tyler moves down the stage, preparing to hoist himself into the crowd as the intro to _Holding Onto You_ starts when Tyler’s chest suddenly feels like it’s on fire. He stops moving, eyes glancing down to the pendant under his shirt. Is that what’s burning him?

And just like that, the sensation is gone.

And someone is yelling “CUT!”

Lights flicker on in the arena to reveal that is actually isn’t an arena at all, but a set. The crowd is nothing but extras.

_What the hell?_

Tyler looks behind him to see Josh with the same confused look on his face. They were playing a show, and somehow, _somehow,_ it was now a television set.

Someone throws their arm around Tyler’s shoulders, and Tyler is surprised to see it’s Mark. He’s wearing a pass around his neck that says director on it.

“Tyler, my man, that was good! But we need more emotion. More _feeling,_ you know what I mean?”

“Uhh...” is Tyler’s response. He looks over to Josh for help, but he only shrugs.

“The crowd’s gotta know you’re excited to play these next songs, right? Right now, it sounds like you only want to half play them. The other half of you wants to go take a nap. And I feel like you could do a better job of that.” Mark grins, sliding his arm off of Tyler’s shoulders. His nose scrunches in disgust at the fact that Tyler’s sweat is now all over his arm and wipes it on his own shirt.

“Okay, can we get another take?” Mark disappears off stage, leaving Tyler a confused mess. The microphone in his hand is fake, he realizes.

“We Don’t Believe, Scene 27, Take 5, action!” A skinny man with a beard snaps the marker and darts offstage as the lights go back down and the intro to _Holding Onto You_ starts once again. Tyler raises the mic to his mouth, but it’s the wrong end and he doesn’t think he can manage to get words out. This has to be a dream. There’s no way this can be real.

“Cut!” Mark yells again, ending it with a sigh. He comes back on stage. “Ty? Something up?”

Tyler is about to frickin’ lose it.

“TV show?” he half asks, and his voice cracks in the middle. How the hell did they end up on a TV set? Why is _his_ concert on a TV set?

He swore it was real when it started.

Mark nods, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “Yeah. That’s what we’re filming. Season four, remember? Did you hit your head or something?”

“I uh, maybe?”

Josh climbs down from his drums and approaches the two. He’s freaking out just as badly, but he’s better at hiding it.

“Hey Mark.”

“Joshua!” Mark clasps him on the back. “Did you guys get high last night? Your boyfriend is acting a little weird.”

Tyler chokes on his own spit, eyes going wide. _“Boyfriend?”_

“You’re still dating, right? I’m not making things up? I mean, the two of you were just featured in Hollywood’s top ten couples, so you should be.”

“Dating?” Tyler is mortified.

“Of course we’re still dating!” Josh slides an arm over Tyler’s shoulders, nuzzling his head into the crook of Tyler’s neck. “I don’t know what I’d do without my baby boy.”

Mark rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling. “Good. You know what? We can try again tomorrow.” He moves away to address the others on the set. “That’s a wrap for today everyone!”

The set busies as everyone starts to walk away. Tyler is still nailed to the stage floor, his hands curled by his side. This is all a dream. A weird, terrifying dream.

“Did you guys remember you were featured on this month’s cover of _U.S. Weekly_?”

“No. I did not!” Josh forces a smile. “That’s cool.”

“That’s good for us! I’m hoping we stay on for at least three more seasons. Your relationship is getting us a lot more publicity. And your constant state of partying.”

“Oh yeah, we just love partying,” Josh agrees. God, he is so awkward. Tyler is still rigid under his arm, eyes widened in a state of shock.

“Can you tell Pete I need him to get in at least three more photo shoots this month? We need to get the promos put on TV. You guys are going to have to film those probably sometime next week.” He twists his hands together. “God, I’m so excited!”

“Pete?” Josh asks, even though he probably shouldn’t.

“Pete? As in Pete Wentz? Your manager? Jeez, what is up with you two today?”

“It’s been a long day,” Josh decides. He recognizes Hayley as she comes on stage.

“Josh! Tyler!” she waves with a smile, placing both hands on her hips. “Let’s get that makeup off and get you in some clean clothes. Then Patrick can take you home.”

“Patrick...Stump?” Josh tries as Hayley pulls on his wrist and he’s ripped away from Tyler. He’s starting to go insane. What is going on?

“Uh, yeah...?” Hayley looks confused and Mark shakes it off.

“I think they had a late night,” he whispers, giving Tyler a little shove. “I’ll see you guys later!”

Hayley pushes them down the hallway, people in costumes and racks of clothing and God knows what else zipping past them. Tyler is mesmerized, eyes following the chaos laid out in front of him. Josh just focuses on not tripping over his own feet.

The boys are shoved into chairs where three other girls join Hayley in pulling off Josh and Tyler’s shirts. They get to work at scrubbing the makeup off of their faces.

One of the girls, he recognizes as Debby, flashes Tyler a weird look as she scrubs away at the black paint on his hands. It’s because of his wedding ring. Guess he’d have to take that off.

She slides it off for him and places it on the counter in front. Tyler stares at himself in the mirror.

That’s when he realizes the pendant is missing from around his neck.

Did it get misplaced when they took his shirt off? It couldn’t have just disappeared.

Where did it go?

Debby, who is currently scrubbing at Tyler’s neck moves down to his arms, and Tyler’s flinching and pulling away.

“Woah woah! What are you doing?” he gently shoves her out of the way, eyes widening once more when he realizes his arms are coating in a heavy foundation. Underneath are two tattoo sleeves, every inch of skin covered by ink. He still has all his original tattoos, but now he has so many more. How did that happen? How did-

Tyler is hyperventilating.

Josh pops out of his chair to comfort his friend, leaning his forehead against Ty’s. He grabs him by the shoulders. “Hey hey hey, deep breaths buddy, deep breaths.”

“Tattoos,” Tyler whispers, exasperated. Josh nods. He would never tell Tyler, not in a million years, but it was hot. Seeing Tyler with two sleeves was hot, and maybe, just maybe, he was getting hard because of it.

“I know, I don’t know what’s going on but we gotta stay calm, okay? Stay calm.”

“Calm,” Tyler repeats. Josh pulls away and goes back to his seat. Hayley gives the two a weird look but goes back to removing makeup. Lucky for him, he has no other secret tattoos hidden by makeup. He’s just normal Josh.

But for Tyler, that isn’t the only surprise. Debby pulls out a small drawer full of jewelry and pulls out two white plugs. She’s shoving them back in Tyler’s ears before he can even protest, and Josh finds himself staring. Hayley pulls him back forward by his jaw.

“You can stare at your boyfriend later, okay?”

Josh is happy Tyler didn’t hear that.

Turns out Tyler’s got his lip pierced too, and Josh has to use all his self control not to start panting. Is this what actor Tyler looks like? Because holy shit.

“Did you decide what colour you’re going to do your hair next Tyler?” Hayley asks as Debby runs a comb through it. It’s long, Tyler notes. He hasn’t had his hair long in months.

He thinks he’s going to puke.

“He looked so handsome in the blue!” Debby comments happily. She reaches behind her to pull a black shirt of the rack. She tosses it to Tyler who quickly shimmies into it. He slips his wedding ring back onto his finger as well.

He feels so uncomfortable, and Josh notices. They have to get out.

“I don’t,” Tyler chokes out. Hayley hands Josh a shirt and his snapback.

“Gotta pick something,” Hayley grins. “Or Pete is gonna chose for you.”

“And we don’t want that.” The girls broke out in giggles.

“Of course not,” Josh spoke for Tyler, throwing an arm over his shoulders after he pulled on his clothes. He starts to inch towards the door. Tyler has forgotten how to walk. He’s practically leaning all his weight on Josh at the moment. “You girls have a good day!”

Josh pushed open the door and started down the hallway having absolutely no idea where he was going. All he knew was that Tyler was going to pass out any second.

He keeps muttering, voice cracking ever so slightly as eyes wandered around. They had to get answers somewhere.

“Hey, Josh!” Josh recognizes Patrick’s voice as it came around the corner, and his eyes almost bug out of his head. Patrick had a tattoo sleeve of his own.

What was going on?

“Are you guys ready to go?” he asks with a grin, shoving his hands in his pockets. He pulls out to reveal their cell phones. The ones they have in the real world, Josh hopes. “Mark told me to give these to you.”

“Thanks.” They are shoved deep in Josh’s pocket.

“Home?” Tyler asks hopefully, earning him a weird look from Patrick.

“Is he doing okay?”

Josh leans forward so he can whisper. “Long night.”

Patrick nods. “Ahh, okay. Well, let’s get you both home then.” Josh helps Tyler down the hallway, following Patrick into a hot garage. He wonders if they’re still in Ohio.

Patrick unlocks the door to a black SUV, pulling open the back door so they can get in. Josh helps Tyler up. He’s still not processing anything.

In fact, Tyler lays sprawled out across Josh’s lap the entirety of the ride home. Patrick pulls out of the garage and joins the rest of the cars on the street. Josh immediately recognizes where they are.

Hollywood.

How on earth did they get from Columbus, Ohio to Hollywood, California? How did their real life concert turn into a TV set? How did Tyler become the punkest one in the band?

Nothing makes sense.

They might be stuck in this world forever.

***

Patrick drops them off in front of a _gigantic_ house.

Josh and Tyler can’t help but to stare in shock, with their mouths wide open. Who would even _need_ a house this big? Why would anyone in the world need that? What could you even do with it?

“Do we _live_ here?” comes out of Josh’s mouth accidentally. Of course they do. Well, the actor versions of themselves it seems.

Patrick turns around in his seat. “You guys might need to lay off the drugs for a little while. Stay away from Brendon, okay?”

Josh swallows loudly. “Yeah, okay. sure. Uh, see yah.”

Patrick waves as the two of them climb down out of the car and make their way to the front door of the house. They don’t even have to open it, because a woman probably in her early twenties opens it for them.

“Mr. Joseph, Mr. Dun, it’s so good to see you! Please come in.” she pulls them inside, and they continue to gape over the entryway. There’s a frickin’ huge chandelier right above them, and the floor is made of a tile that reminds Josh of a castle. How big of an ego do actor versions have? Do they really need to have a maid?

Crap. They don’t know her name.

“I’ve done mostly everything you told me to do today, I was just about to get started on dinner. How was work today?”

“Good,” Josh replies, starting to pull Tyler up the giant staircase in the middle of the entryway. She nods her head.

“I’ll call you when dinner's ready.”

Josh smiles. “Thanks!” and then they are hightailing it upstairs. The hallway is long and covered in doors. Why would you need so many rooms? What did they even do with all the rooms? There were supposedly only two of them living here, unless the maid lived with them. Where there more maids?

“How you doing?” whispers Josh as he pushes open a door. Nope, not where they need to be.

“How am I doing? I’m freaking out. A lot. Really badly actually.”

“When we find the bedroom, we can look some stuff up online, okay? See if we can find some answers.”

“We’re in Hollywood and I look like someone straight off of Warped Tour.”

“Woah man, you look like me. Easy there.”

“Sorry. I’m just not use to this,” Tyler’s tongue darts across his lips where the ring is off to the right side, “or these.” then he raises his pinkie finger to stick it through the hole in his ear. “Or all these tattoos if I’m being completely honest.”

“We aren’t in our world, you aren’t going to be like that forever.” _Hopefully._ But if _he's_ being honest, Josh doesn't want Tyler to go back to how he actually looks.

Finally, Josh turns a doorknob to reveal the master bedroom. It’s huge, just like everything in this place, with a king sized bed in the middle against the back wall with two side tables flanking it. There’s a bathroom add on one side and a walk in closet on the other, complete with a massive flat screen tv against the adjacent wall. Josh spots a laptop resting on one of the tables and goes to retrieve it, hoisting himself up onto the bed as he opens it. Tyler glances around.

Luckily for Josh, actor version and him shared the same password. “Bingo.”

Tyler looks inside the closet, eyes going big. “There are so many clothes in here!” It’s filled with suits and shoes and t-shirts and skinny jeans. He assumes one side is Josh’s and the other side is his. Cause they are together in this world. Right.

“Probably,” Josh replies. He pulls up google chrome and waits for the browser to load. Tyler wanders over to the bathroom, which is just as big. It contains a double sink, a full jacuzzi bath and a walk in shower with a rain head. He shakes his head in disbelief.

“Bathroom’s just as big.”

“Something tells me actor us enjoys big and extravagant.”

Tyler scoffs. “You don’t say.” he picks up a magazine from the other bedside table, a small yelp coming from his throat. There they are. Well, not them. Actor them. They’re both wearing blue suits, the very suits they wore to the MTV Music Awards in fact, and Tyler’s got bright blue hair. Josh is pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“Whatcha got?” Josh asks, leaning over. Tyler tosses the magazine onto the bed, wiping his hands on his shirt like he touched something disgusting. Josh just stares. “Woah,” he says after a while.

“You’re telling me.” Tyler climbs up next to Josh, taking the magazine in his hands. He starts to rifle through it, looking for the article about them. “Have you found anything yet?”

“I’m googling my name right now.” Josh had to admit, he had done that once or twice in the real world, just to see what would come up. But something tells him he won't find the same results. “Woah, I have my own IMDB page!”

“You’re an actor, remember?” Tyler finally finds the article about them. He scans the pictures, feeling sicker by the moment. There’s a picture of him with his suit jacket thrown over his shoulder. Another is Josh completely leaning against Tyler with his arms folded. There’s plenty of pictures where they’re kissing.

He holds them up.

“Er...” Josh tries, not really sure what to say. It’s weird. It’s the weirdest thing he’s ever seen.

“Does Jenna even exist in this world?” Tyler drags a hand through his hair and goes back to twisting his ring, magazine discarded to the side. Josh shrugs and clicks on his Wikipedia page.

“Says I’m from Columbus. I’m dating you. I play the drummer on a TV show called _We Don’t Believe,_ which is currently filming its fourth season. It’s apparently a pretty big hit.”

Tyler leans over to see the laptop screen better. “What’s the show about?” Josh clicks the link and waits for the page to load. He sighs.

“ _We Don’t Believe_ follows the lives of bandmates Tyler and Josh as they make their way up the industry with their band, Twenty One Pilots, meeting friends and having jokes along the way. This sounds stupid. Why would anyone watch this?”

“Our band is fake in this world?” Tyler clarifies, his stomach dropping. If their band isn’t real, are any of the other bands? Fall Out Boy obviously doesn’t exist if Pete’s their supposed manager and Patrick’s driving them places.

“I guess so. The show started in 2009, and has been going on ever since. Oh seriously? I don’t even play the drums here! It’s all fake!” Josh leans back and crosses his arms with a string of grumbles.

“How long have we been dating?” He leans over to scroll further down the page. “Since 2011. Wow. That’s a long time.”

“And now we’ve got to pretend we know how we got here.” Josh sighs, dragging a hand down his face. “How do we end up in an alternate universe where we are actors on a TV show about our own lives?”

“Youtube,” demands Tyler as he clicks a link. It takes them to a clip on the show. They’re both on the tourbus, sitting on the floor.

“It’s four am,” Tyler whines, but Josh shakes his head.

“Come on, it’ll be cool We’ll be like spies or something. If you get kidnapped and a clone of you appears, we can do the handshake and I’ll know it’s not you.” A laugh track follows. Real Tyler pauses the video.

“That is awful,” he decides. Josh agrees.

“But that happened. We did sit down and make that up. I mean, it wasn’t like that, but it happened.”

“I know.” Josh rubs at his neck. “Okay. So we’re actors.”

“We’re actors.”

“How did this happen?”

“Crap.” Tyler forgot all about the pendant that had “magically” disappeared. “Right before we were about to play, I got burned by that necklace, right? And then it was gone.”

“Gone.”

“It disappeared. I don’t know if it got lost in my shirt or something, but it’s gone.”

Josh stands up so fast he tumbles off the bed; Tyler manages to save the laptop from following him. He pops up, exasperated.

“Creepy shop owner!” he shouts, pointing at Tyler. “He cursed you! ‘Be careful with that, Tyler Joseph!’”

Tyler rolls his eyes. “Oh come on Josh, that’s ridiculous.”

“No wonder he gave it to you for free. He wanted to get rid of it 'cause it sends people to different dimensions!”

Tyler only sighs. He doesn’t how to answer.

“We’re going to be trapped here until you find that pendant again. And then we have to fly back to Columbus and go find him and force the creepy old man to put us back on our own planet.”

“Josh, knock it off. Do you hear yourself right now?”

“You brought it up!”

“I know I did, I just don’t-”

“Look at yourself man! You don’t think this is weird? It makes sense! How else would we get here? The dude knew your name.”

“You’re the one that said lots of people knew my name!”

“Maybe he had it out to get you.”

“Josh!”

“Listen to me Tyler, do you have any other explanation for this?”

He sighs. “No. I don’t.”

“So we go with this until we can figure out answers, okay? Because I don’t know what’s going on, and you don’t know what’s going on, so until we do we have to pretend that we have giant egos and party every night and have sex or something.”

“No,” Tyler says. “We aren’t having-”

“God! No! That’s not what I meant! Jesus Tyler, that is certainly not what I meant.” Josh groans, running a hand through his hair. “Pretend. We have to pretend.”

Tyler takes a deep breath. “Okay. Pretend. I can do that.”

Maybe.

 

 


	2. 002

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mentions of drugs in this chapter. It's mostly an introductory to everyone's favourite Urie. 
> 
> Also I started school again so the updates will sadly not be as frequent as I would like them to be. Sorry!

A phone rings.

Josh and Tyler look at each other before Josh is pulling out both their cell phones from his pocket. He forgot those were in there.

It’s Josh’s phone that’s ringing, and the caller ID reads “Brendon” followed by a bunch of leaf emojis. Okay, definitely not Josh’s original phone.

“Patrick said not to talk to Brendon.” Tyler says worryingly. Josh shrugs.

“Do you want me to answer it?”

“Not really.”

Josh answers anyways. “Hello?”

“Jishwa, good to hear your voice! It’s been far too long.”

Josh chuckles awkwardly. “Uh, yeah!” Tyler shoots him a look to which Josh shrugs again and starts to pace around the room. He gnaws at his lip in semi-worry about what Brendon is going to say. Brendon could be completely different from how he is in the real world. That seems to be the pattern in this place.

“So I’m finally back from Manila, flew into LAX this morning actually, but now that you and Ty are done with work I wanted to know if you wanted to go out tonight? I can get us into this new club. Wait list is like a year or something, but the owner owes me a favour. Also picked up more of the good stuff.” Oh great.

“Yeah you know, Tyler really isn’t feeling that good, he’s got a terrible hangover from our hardcore partying last night so I’m thinking we just have a night in. You can stop by if you want?” Tyler groans silently to Josh’s response, covering his mouth with his hands. He buries himself into the bed sheets.

“Aww dude, seriously? Well you know what cures a hangover right?”

“Uhh... nothing?” Josh responds, still staring at Tyler who is trying to make himself disappear at the moment. He shakes his head and uses his free hand to rub at his face.

“More alcohol!” Brendon cheers loudly before muffling the speaker to yell at who Josh guesses is his driver. “You could get a couple joints in there too, feel so much better. Come on dudes, I haven’t seen you in four months. Just tonight. You’d usually be up for it.”

Josh sighs, the rubbing at his face intensifying. He’s never done drugs in his life. How is he supposed to act like he’s done it before? Not that he even wants to do it. “Just come over, and we’ll talk about it, alright? See what Ty’s up too.”

“Alright, you lovebirds have fun. I’ll be over in fifteen, so make it a quickie.” Then the phone line goes dead, leaving Josh to sigh once more. He questions the actor versions of themselves more than he questions normal Tyler.

“Dude?” Josh asks, looking over at the lump in the bed covered by the duvet. He slams his phone on the bedside table before yanking off the blankets. Tyler’s hair sticks up in a billion different directions as he peers up at Josh sheepishly.

“This is terrible,” Tyler determines. Josh can’t disagree.

“Brendon’s coming over in fifteen, so you gotta act like you have a hangover.”

“Dude.” Tyler runs his hands through his hair, trying to tame the flyaways. “I can’t even remember the last time I had a hangover.”

“Just act like everything hurts. That should work.” Josh offers him a hand to help him out of the bed when a tiny beeping noise echos in their room. Tyler points to the intercom placed next to the lightswitch. It’s got a red blinking light.

“Mr. Joseph, Mr. Dun? Dinner is ready, if you are!”

“Er, thank you. Uh, Brendon is coming over in fifteen minutes, just to let you know.” Josh leans over, trying to make this as not awkward as possible, but he’s currently failing.

“Oh! Should I make Mr. Urie a plate?”

“Uhm, no, you can wait. Uh, he can decide for himself.”

“Sure thing!” the intercom clicks off, leaving Josh and Tyler to once again freak out over the fact that they’re here and not in their actual world. Tyler starts playing with the lip ring.

“Dude, you’re going to infect that. Stop touching it.”

“How would you know?” Tyler retaliates, but he drops his hand and starts towards the hallway. Josh snorts, following him.

“How would I know? I think I’m a little more advanced in that subject than you are my friend.” Tyler knows he’s right.

They both make their way downstairs, trying to find something familiar in this giant house to remember which room is where. Down the staircase, Josh makes a right down another hallway to find himself in some sort of den area. There’s a television with an X-box and about a million different games all shelved nicely on one of the walls. Tyler pulls something off the back of the couch, sighing happily when he realizes what it is.

“Good to know I still have this.” Tyler is grinning as he slides his arms into the holes of his kimono, earning him a glare from Josh.

“Fantastic. But this isn’t where we need to be.” He turns out to go the other way, muttering under his breath as they walk. Tyler strolls behind him.

“I really hope Brendon buys our charade.”

“We just gotta be careful and go off of everything he says. Then again, that also includes remembering what he says so we don’t accidentally slip up.” Josh is still pawing at his face in worry, because he isn’t an actor and he can’t lie to save his life. What’s going to happen if he does screw everything up and Brendon gets suspicious? It’s not like he could snap his fingers and go back to the real world. There isn’t anywhere to hide.

“Well that shouldn’t be too hard. You’re pretty good with memorization, if I remember correctly.” Tyler scratches his arm through the fabric, finally giving up with an irritated sigh and pulling his kimono off. There’s a tattoo of a skull on his upper arm outlined in pink rigid skin. He continues to scratch, doing nothing helpful to it. In fact, he’s broken skin.

Josh isn’t paying attention to Tyler loudly scratching behind him; he’s too focused on the giant table laid out in the supposed dining room. It’s a dark wood, probably mahogany if Josh had to guess, and two single plates are laid out on opposite ends complete with glasses filled with white wine. Upon further inspection, Josh finds mashed potatoes and salmon on said plates. He can’t even remember the last time he had a family cooked meal. Tyler and him have been living off Redbull and Taco Bell far too long.

“Holy cow,” he mutters under his breath right as the maid (he still doesn’t know her name) comes into the room. She grins.

“I made your favourite. Thought you deserved it after a long day’s work.”

“Uh, thank you. That’s really nice of you.”

She seems taken back by Josh’s thank you, which really worries him. Are the actor versions really that big of pretentious assholes?

“I’m just doing my job sir.” she flashes another smile before disappearing behind a door which Josh assumes leads to the kitchen. With a frustrated sigh, he drops down into the chair. Tyler takes one look at his plate at the other end before dragging it over to the chair directly next to his friend and sitting down, draping his robe over the back of it. He’s still scratching his arm like no tomorrow.

“Jesus dude, what is wrong with you?”

“It feels like my arm is on fire and it itches so frickin’ bad.” Tyler replies as he shoves his arm in front of Josh’s face. Josh nudges it farther in front so he has his personal space. He takes a moment to observe the red, inflamed skin before leaning back against his chair with a sigh.

“You gotta stop touching it.”

“Are you kidding me? Have you ever tried to not itch something?”

“Yeah, and I know it’s hard, but I don’t know anything that’s going on and it looks like the skin isn’t reacting with the ink in a way you’d like it too. So stop touching it.”

Tyler sighs, still focusing on his ink covered arm. It’s so weird. He’d never thought his entire arm would be covered one day. The tattoos he had was plenty. Yet, here they were.

“Fine. I’ll try not to touch it.” he grumbles, picking up his fork so he can push around the food on his plate. “Why is everything happening to me?”

“It’s ‘cause you’re the lead singer.”

Tyler snorts. “Ha, you’re hilarious. Maybe you should have been a comedian instead of a drummer.”

“I’ll take it up as a hobby.”

They eat in silence for a few minutes before Tyler is dropping his fork to the table with a clatter and sighing.

“This isn’t right. We shouldn’t have people to make our food for us. I mean, don’t get me wrong. It’s fantastic, and much better than fast food every night, but it’s not right. I’ve got hands.”

“I know, but we gotta act like we’re used to it. Everyone thinks we are Josh and Tyler that are actors on a TV show. We have big egos and expensive taste.”

“I hate this. I don’t understand anything that’s going on. What if we-”

The doorbell rings.

And the boys know perfectly well who it is.

Josh pushes up out of his chair too quickly and ends up tumbling to the floor. Tyler stares at him with a face that says “are you kidding me?”

He scowls. “You go convince Brendon you aren’t well. I’ll clean up in here.”

“Yeah, okay.” Tyler leaves the room, allowing Josh to pull himself up on his own. He swallows nervously as the front door comes into view. Brendon in the real world was already a handful; how was he going to be in this world?

“Tyler Joseph, my favourite fake lead singer! How are you today?” Brendon exclaims the minute Tyler opens the door. He pulls him into a bone crushing hug.

“Can’t...breathe...” Tyler gasps for air and Brendon lets go quickly, still grinning ear to ear like an idiot. Tyler goes back to scratching at his arm. (Josh isn’t around to yell at him, so he’s going to do it regardless.)

“Sorry. How’s the hangover? You feeling any better?” He shoves his hands in his pockets and leans against the door.

“Yeah you know, not really? My head’s just pounding. It’s pretty bad.” Tyler tries to put on a face of hurt but he’s pretty sure he just failed horribly and made himself look like an idiot with a hand tangled in his hair.

“Damn. Is it even worse than London?” Brendon’s smile gets bigger and Tyler tries to refrain from fleeing the room. What the hell happened in London?

“Uh...” he starts, chuckling awkwardly. Brendon’s still standing there with that stupid grin and he’s still at a loss for words. _Damn you Brendon Urie._ “No?”

Brendon lets out a loud laugh. “I don’t think anything could be worse than London. We ended up staying the night in jail.”

“What a night that was.” he tries to grin but it’s too tense and forced looking. Fortunately Brendon doesn’t notice, because he’s too busy peering down the hallway.

“Where’s Josh? He still recovering?”

“Uh, recovering?” Oh boy.

Brendon raises an eyebrow. “You did have sex, right?”

“Oh God, why would-” Tyler stops in the middle of his grimace because he remembers that Josh and him are a “thing” in this world, and sex is usually a normal part of a relationship. Not that he’s ever thought about having sex with Josh. That would be weird, right?

“Yeah totally. We had so much sex. Sex all the time.” he starts to laugh nervously, to which Brendon gives him a strange look.

“Yeah, maybe you really aren’t feeling well. You aren’t high right now, are you?”

“I don’t think so.” Tyler blinks, letting Brendon’s eyes wander the length of his body. He’s gulping once more.

And then he gasps loudly, which causes Tyler to jump a good foot in the air. God, he really hates this place.

Brendon actually looks generally angry. “What the actual fuck Tyler? Why would you not tell me something like that?”

Tyler tilts his head in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t bullshit me Tyler Joseph, you know perfectly well what I am talking about.” the minute he reaches over Tyler knows _exactly_ what Brendon’s talking about, and he can’t believe he was so stupid. Why didn’t he take his wedding ring off when he had the chance? He knew he couldn’t wear it in this world. He knew that, and yet here they were, because Tyler was a frickin’ idiot. Great.

“Oh. You mean that.”

“He proposed to you? How long ago did this happen? Why didn’t you tell me? Am I the last to know?”

“Last to know about what?” Josh asks as he joins in on their conversation. He throws an arm around Tyler’s shoulders, and Tyler immediately tenses up because Josh is not helping the current situation.

“About the fact that you and Tyler are engaged!”

Josh’s eyes just about bug out of his face, because this is news to him. Tyler is staring at him, giving him a pleading look to just go along with it, so he swallows and does just that.

“Oh yeah. Right. I uh, proposed to him. ‘Cause we’re in love! Haha... surprise!”

“How could you not tell me this? I thought we were friends! I thought-”

“We haven’t told anyone,” Tyler interrupts, his eyes flickering between a furious Brendon and an extremely lost Josh. “It just happened, like last week. We haven’t even told our families yet.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because they aren’t ready to know,” Josh tries, and Tyler mentally gives him a thumbs up. “We need time. This is all a little rushed, you know? And once everyone knows, then the public knows, and we aren’t quite ready for the public to know just yet.”

“Why not? You love attention.”

“Because our relationship is special. I uh, love Josh more than the average teenage girl. He’s important to me.”

“Basically we don’t want everything about our lives broadcasted. So it’s going to stay a secret, got it Brendon?” Josh and Tyler both give Brendon a stern look, praying that he won’t say anything. Tyler wants to kick himself for being such an idiot.

Finally, after what seems like hours, Brendon lets out a sigh and drags a hand through his hair. “Fine. I won’t tell anyone. I’m not that big of an asshole.” he pauses. “Wait, does that mean I’m the only one that knows? Has no one seriously not noticed?”

“Well Tyler doesn’t wear his ring out in public, but he obviously was not thinking today.” Josh’s tone becomes gritted towards the end and Tyler knows he is not happy. Great.

“Not even Pete? Or Mark? Nobody?”

“Nobody.”

Brendon grins. “I feel special.”

“You are special.”

“Great.” he clasps his hands together and rests a hand on the stair railing. “Now let’s go get the two of you changed. We are celebrating tonight.”

“My hangover,” Tyler starts but Brendon cuts him off with a loud, obnoxious shush.

“Your hangover, Josh’s sore ass, it doesn’t matter. We are going out and I don’t care what either one of you say. Jeez, for newly engaged you aren’t acting like a couple.” One smirk later, Brendon bounces upstairs and down the hallway to their bedroom. Tyler takes a step away from Josh, who is trying to the connect the dots here.

“My sore ass?” He repeats, placing his hands on his hips as he turns to glare at Tyler. Tyler can feel his face turning red.

“Yeah uhm... he thinks we uh, uhm...”

Josh groans, covering his face with his hands. “Dude!”

“I’m sorry! You’re the one that told me to go along with everything he said! I panicked!”

“Is that also why we are apparently now engaged? Because you were stupid and didn’t take off that godforsaken ring of yours?”

“Oh, I’m so frickin’ sorry I forgot to take off my goddamn wedding ring. It’s not like I’m married or anything.”

Josh groans again. He reaches out to grab both of Tyler’s shoulders, and shakes them gently. “Listen to me. This is not our world. This is some weird freaky alternate dimension and everything is different. In this world, you are not married. In this world, we are dating. In this world, we are egotistical asshole actors. I don’t know when we are getting back to our world. I don’t know if we ever will. But we can’t let this get the better of us, okay? We can’t let this cause problems. I know it’s stressful lying and pretending like we know everything. I know it’s annoying having piercings and tattoos you aren’t used to. But we just gotta survive out in public, okay? We can be normal and talk about our normal stupid things here.”

Tyler sighs, but nods his head. He knows Josh is right. “Okay. I know. I’m sorry. I’m just stressed out. This day has been far too long. When we started that concert, it was seven. Then it was like, four. Now it’s seven again and all I want to do is sleep for a thousand years.”

“I know. We just gotta get through tonight and avoid all the drugs and alcohol and pretend like we love and know how to party.”

“We can do that.” Tyler gestures to the staircase. “We should probably go see what Brendon is up too.”

“Probably.” Josh starts to make his way up the stairs, but stops halfway. Tyler places a hand on his back with a worrying look.

“Are you okay?”

“Why did Brendon assume it was my ass that hurt?”

“Oh dude. Don’t start this.”

“No, I’m serious.”

“Well, then let’s be serious here Josh. I’d top.”

Josh’s jaw drops. “You did _not_ just say that.”

“Yeah. I did. And you know it’s true. You’re far too nice to get aggressive.” One shrug later, Tyler was joining Brendon in the bedroom, leaving Josh to shuffle down the hallway in grumbles.

***

“Put this on,” Brendon demands, tossing Josh a grey v-neck and black skinny jeans. He then presents Tyler with a similar outfit. Josh starts towards the bathroom to change when Brendon’s scoffing stops him cold. “You aren’t seriously going to the bathroom to change, are you?”

“Well uhm, I was thinking about it...”

“We change in front of each other all the time. I’ve seen both of you naked. In fact, once, you were so drunk I watched you tear off each other’s clothes and almost start fucking, but luckily I managed to pull you apart. You two can never spend a single second apart. Fucking PDA guys.”

Their faces are bright red. In fact, Tyler is biting his shoulder to avoid saying something and Josh is just staring at his very interesting shirt. He finally lets out a laugh, like everything was a joke the whole time.

“Right. I was just kidding. Tyler and I have sex all the time. So much sex it’s probably unhealthy.”

“Dude.” Tyler whispers loudly, his blush deepening.

“I’m just gonna, uh, change right here.” Brendon watches him strangely as Josh pulls off his shirt and slips into the new one. Then he’s sliding off his belt, still trying to avoid eye contact with Brendon. This is weird. Way too weird.

Tyler pushes himself into one corner of the room and repeats Josh’s actions, but lucky for him Brendon is not staring him down. He tries to think if their Brendon would ever do this.

Probably.

When Brendon is satisfied, he shoves the two of them into the bathroom. “Hair and cologne. You need to look nice.”

“But we’re engaged...?” Tyler tries, but Brendon shakes his head.

“Doesn’t matter. I’m not trying to get you two into someone’s pants; you’ll do that to each other by the time the night’s over. You just need to look nice in case the paparazzi are there. Which I know they will be. This place is all over the tabloids at the moment. So you need to look pretty. Tyler, take your ring off.” Tyler obeys, and accepts the hair gel Brendon pushes his way after setting his ring down on the counter.

“Brendon, have you ever heard of Panic at the Disco?” Tyler asks as Brendon runs a comb through Josh’s unruly hair. Josh shoots him a look.

Brendon scoffs. “The fake band I’m the fake lead singer of on _your_ TV show? Yeah. I’ve heard of it.”

Tyler nods. “Well, that’s uh, good. What about Fall Out Boy?”

“Like the Simpsons character?”

Okay, so that’s a no. “Yeah. Exactly.”

“The Killers?” Josh tries, catching on to what Tyler is doing. Brendon shakes his head.

“Nope.”

“My Chemical Romance?”

“Nada.”

“Paramore?”

“Para what?”

“Do you have any good music in this world?” Tyler huffs into his hands before leaning against the sink. He folds his arms over his chest tightly.

“In this world? Dude, what have the two of you been smoking lately?”

“Weed. Tons and tons of weed.” Josh pushes Brendon away and points towards the door. “Are we gonna go now or not?”

“Yeah. One more thing.” Brendon pulls a small aerosol can from under the sink and drenches the two of them in it, causing both to cough to the point where they might be dying. Brendon smacks Josh and Tyler on the back and shoves them towards the door. “Let’s go losers.”


	3. 003

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the party chapter. Drugs and alcohol and stuff.

“Just follow my lead when we get there, okay? I know you’re used to all of this but there will be a lot of people and a lot of cameras and most likely a lot of screaming.”

The three of them are squeezed in the back of a black SUV, Brendon’s usual ride and chauffeur taking them to this club Brendon had yet to shut up about. Josh and Tyler are sitting extremely close together, thighs touching. They hadn’t done that on purpose; the truth of the matter was the fact that they are scared out of their minds.

Tyler’s knee is bouncing up and down as he leans over to match Brendon’s smile. “Yeah.”

“I know you don’t feel well but you will soon enough! Just wait until we get there. You need a good partying.” Brendon leans back and crosses his arms over his chest, eyes flickering out the window to watch the passing buildings and palm trees. Tyler sighs, his eyes fluttering closed as he tries to calm himself down. He feels Josh slide his hand in place with his.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Josh whispers, rubbing circles with his thumb on the back of Tyler’s hand. Tyler nods, but it’s obvious he’s nervous. So is Josh, but he can hide things a little better than his friend. Tyler’s an emotional guy, always has been and always will be. You can’t hide that kind of stuff.

“So you gotta catch me up on what I missed,” Brendon says, snapping Josh and Tyler away from their thoughts. Josh expects Tyler to pull away, but he doesn’t.

“Uhm,” Josh starts, hoping he can make something up on the fly, “Like what?”

“Like how is everyone doing? Are you any closer to helping Pete bang Patrick?”

Tyler chokes on his own spit and starts coughing loudly, catching the attention of the driver in the rear-view mirror. Brendon stares at them curiously as Josh thwacks Ty on the back.

“Why on earth would Pete want to do that?” Tyler exclaims once he’s done dying. Josh shakes his head.

“Yeah I know! I know it’s weird, considering Patrick is your chauffeur, but Pete’s in love!” Brendon sings with a wave of his hand. He then bursts into laughter, Josh and Tyler laughing awkwardly along with them.

“Right! Because Pete loves Patrick... he’s not married, with children... he’s our manager! He’s in love with Patrick...” Josh rubs at his face with one hand before giving up and shoving his head into them. Brendon looks between the two of them in suspicion.

“We haven’t got very far on that part,” Tyler takes over surprisingly, giving a very convincing smile. “We were waiting for you to get back, since you’re the expert.”

“You’re damn right I am.” Tyler sighs with relief at the right use of words as Brendon leans forward to ask how far away they are. Ty taps on Josh’s back.

“What are we going to do about you know what?” he asks in a hushed tone. Josh drags a hand through his hair, silently groaning as he realizes his hand is now covered in hair gel.

As he wipes it on his jeans, Josh replies with, “I’ll take one for the team and distract him as much as possible. I already drink, you don’t. I can put up with the drugs.”

“Don’t do that, you aren’t going to be able to-”

“Whatcha talking about?” Brendon interrupts them, throwing an arm around Josh’s shoulders. Once again, Tyler acts quick, and surprisingly calm.

“I was just telling Josh here that this club better not disappoint or else I won’t be friends with you anymore.”

Brendon scoffs. “Trust me. I’ve only heard good things about it. We got about three more minutes.” he pauses briefly to reach into a side compartment of the car and pops back up with three pairs of sunglasses. “You’ll want these.”

“Thanks.” This, this is normal. Sunglasses are normal. Not any of this “Surprise! All your friends are gay in this universe!” stuff. Sunglasses.

“You know, I’m kind of surprised at your self control tonight. The two of you look fucking hot and not once have either of you shoved a tongue down the other’s throat.”

Josh lets out a laugh that is way too loud, causing Tyler to dig his nails into Josh’s shoulder.

“Funny! You are so funny!” Josh spits out, despite the pain Tyler is causing him. He wipes his clammy hands on his jeans as Tyler attempts to cover up Josh’s sudden nervousness.

“We decided to save you the PDA.”

He snorts. “Yeah, because you always do that. You know I don’t care. Spencer and I are doing crap like that all the time.”

“You’re dating SPENCER?” comes out of Tyler’s mouth before his brain can tell him to not do exactly that. You think they would have learned right now. “Of course you are. You are dating Spencer. Obviously.”

“Jesus Christ, what is wrong with you two tonight?” Brendon shakes his head in disbelief, his posture showing that he was starting to get annoyed.

“Work,” Josh spits out, laughing nervously again. He rubs his neck, eyes falling to a small tear in the leather of the seat in front of him. Brendon sighs loudly.

And then Tyler places his hands on either side of Josh’s head and kisses him firmly, Josh wriggling around and his eyes wide under the dark lenses of his sunglasses. Brendon raises an eyebrow, but a smile slides back onto his face.

They were terrible actors.

“Here,” the driver grunts as he pulls the car over to the curb. Tyler nudges Josh away and presses his face to the tinted window. Outside is a large line of people; it’s so large that is turns around a corner and disappears. There’s a huge guy standing outside the door in a suit and sunglasses. The bouncer.

It’s something Tyler's only ever seen in a movie.

“Alright, it’s go time,” Brendon mutters as he pushes open his door to crawl out. Josh is still frozen in the shock of the fact that Tyler, his best friend of six years, just kissed him _on the lips_ for three whole seconds. Give or take, it was part of an act, but still.

“Josh?” Tyler asks in worry, giving his friend a little shove. Josh still refuses to move. Brendon is already making his way around the car towards the building entrance. Tyler can hear screams.

“What the fuck just happened?” Josh whips his head around to face Tyler, but neither can fully get a read on the other’s emotions.

“I panicked. Brendon was getting suspicious and I’m sorry.”

“No no, I get it, it’s just...wow. Wow.” Josh slides his glasses off and stares at Tyler with worry. “Oh god Tyler. I’m gonna have to get high tonight.”

“No, you don’t have to do that! Just tell him-”

“Are you still not understanding Tyler?” The driver shifts in his chair at Josh’s sudden change in volume and grunts again.

“Are you two getting out or not?”

“Uh, yeah.” Tyler tugs on Josh’s arm and pushes open the car door. They are immediately hit in the face with camera shutters and screaming.

Now, cameras and screaming weren’t new to either of them, but this? This was a whole new level of uncomfortableness.

Josh slides his sunglasses back on his face and allows Tyler to lead the way to the door where Brendon is currently standing. He’s talking to somebody and laughing loudly. Tyler can hear people shouting their names, asking them questions and telling them to smile, but he ignores everyone and focuses on getting to Brendon. Josh just gulps as he looks around the area. Tyler was supposed to be the nervous one, not him. Since when did they switch places?

“Hey!” Brendon waves them over, and as they move closer Tyler realizes that the person Brendon is talking to is none other than Dallon Weekes.

“Uh, hey everyone.” Tyler clears his throat as he and Josh join Brendon against the wall. People are still screaming behind them.

Josh reaches for Tyler’s hand.

“This is Dallon, he owns this place. Dallon, this is Tyler and Josh.”

“Of course! It’s an honor to meet both of you. I love your work.” Dallon flashes a polite smile, but Tyler isn’t convinced. He may be showing signs of real world Dallon at the moment but it isn’t going to last long.

“Uh, thanks. Nice to meet you too.”

“Anyways, please go on in. I’ll talk to you later.” Dallon waves as Brendon pushes them towards the door and past the bouncer. Inside, it’s just as loud and uncomfortable, what with the hundreds of sweaty bodies pushed up against one another and the bass rumbling the entire building. Brendon says something, but it’s inaudible over the music.

“What?” Tyler yells as he pulls off his sunglasses and shoves them into his pocket. Brendon does the same and rolls his eyes, grabbing a hold of Tyler’s shoulder and yanking him closer.

“Bar,” Brendon demands with a shove. Tyler bits his lip and follows Brendon through the crowd, his grasp on Josh as tight as he can make it. Josh continues to look around the room in worry. Just knowing he’s going to have to do drugs soon is filling him to the brim with anxiety.

While Brendon orders drinks for the three of them, Tyler leans in to whisper, “How you doing?”

“I’m fine!” lies Josh, but he’s secretly thankful Tyler is still holding his hand.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“I know.”

“Yo!” Brendon yells, tapping Tyler with an opened beer bottle. He pushes it into his palm and does the same to Josh. “Ryan and Spencer are in the back waiting for us.”

Josh lets go of Tyler’s hand and forces a smile. “I’ll be okay,” he whispers in Tyler’s ear before Brendon is pulling on his shoulder.

“You coming?”

Tyler shakes his head. “I’ll be over later, I’m gonna do something first.”

“Kay! See you soon!”

Tyler watches as Brendon and Josh disappear into the crowd.

***

 Tyler sits at that bar for God knows how long, his beer remaining untouched. He gnaws on his fingernails, mind swirling with worry on what Brendon could be having Josh do. Why did he let him go with Brendon? They shouldn’t have left the house. They should have told Brendon no; they shouldn’t have let him drag them here.

“I want to go home,” he mutters under his breath as he crosses one leg over the other. Several people have already given him looks; one guy even came over to offer him a drink (Tyler politely declined and told him he had a boyfriend, which was something he never thought he’d ever say.)

“Tyler!” at the mention of his name, Tyler perks up, eyes scanning the crowd. It is then he sees Josh.

And he looks like a mess.

“Tyler!” Josh shouts again, following it with a loud giggle. A _giggle_. Josh doesn’t giggle.

He slumps against Tyler, fingertips brushing against his shoulder blade. Tyler shifts away. Josh’s pupils are dilated, eyes rimmed red, and he reeks of weed. Tyler sighs.

“Hey Josh, how you doing?”

“I’m good, I’m sosososososo good! Oh my god, Tyler. Tyler. Tylertylertyler. You gotta listen to me. You gotta listen to me.”

“I’m listening to you buddy.” he lets Josh put all his weight up against him.

“Brendon, you know Brendon? He’s so cool.” Josh bursts into a round of giggles and grips the bar counter with one hand to hold himself up. Tyler is afraid he might fall over if someone blows on him.

“Yeah, I know Brendon.”

“He gave me this stuff, this really cool stuff, and I only had one and WOW, I feel like a cloud.” he blows a raspberry and laughs again. “Brendon told me to come find you.”

“Oh yeah? Did he?”

“Yesyesyesyes. He did. But Tyler, I gotta tell you a secret.”

“What’s that Josh?” Tyler had only ever seen Josh drunk once. He laughed loudly and had a hard time walking, but besides that everything was fine. But this, _this_  was new to him.

“Tylertylertyler. Secret.”

“Yeah, you said that.”

“Okay, you ready?” Josh leans in closer until his lips are brushing Tyler’s ear. “You have a really pretty mouth.”

Yep, Josh was high off his ass.

So Tyler gently pushes his friend off of him and rolls his eyes. Josh bursts into another string of giggles.

“Tylertylertyler. You gotta listen to me. I gotta tell you something else.”

“Josh, maybe we need to go home.” Josh ignores Tyler’s suggestion and instead reaches for Tyler’s untouched beer. He starts to chug it and only gets through half before Tyler pulls it away. “You do not need any more alcohol.”

“Tyler,” Josh whines, “you gotta listen to me! You’re hot, and I gotta-”

“Josh! Get your boy toy over here!” Brendon yells from the crowd as he pushes through a couple with a joint in his hand. He takes a long drag as Josh giggles again, his hands pressed over his mouth. Tyler sighs. Great.

“Brendon, I think that maybe we need to go home.”

“Hey, we will later! Don’t be a killjoy!” Brendon shakes his head. “Josh is high as fuck. It didn’t take much.”

“Yeah, well we can’t all build up a tolerance like you.”

Brendon narrows his eyes. “Why are you getting all snippy? The two of you have a higher tolerance than I do.”

Josh whimpers and tugs on Tyler’s sleeve. He places a wet, sloppy kiss on Tyler’s cheek. “Come ooooooooon Tyler, come play with us!”

“Yeah Tyler, come do things that you always do!” Brendon smirks, and there’s a pang of panic in Tyler’s chest. It’s almost like Brendon knows. But he can’t know. How would he know?

He feels sweat starting to perspire at his hairline. Brendon’s stare, Josh’s whimpering... it’s all an act. They have to pretend until they get back to their world.

“Fine. Sure. Let’s go!” Tyler laughs as he throws an arm over Josh’s shoulders. Brendon cheers.

If Josh’s tolerance sucked, Tyler’s is five times as worse. It doesn’t take long or much before he is also high off his ass.

Brendon pushes another beer Tyler’s way, laughing at something Spencer’s just said as Tyler chugs it. Josh moves closer to him, throwing an arm over his shoulders. Tyler nuzzles into the crook of Josh's neck.

“Hey Jish!” Tyler shouts, a loopy grin on his face. He lets out a loud laugh. “I’m having soooooooo much fun. Like, a lot of fun.”

“Take your pants off,” Brendon shouts jokingly. Spencer raises an eyebrow and pulls Brendon closer as Tyler turns red.

“Tylerrrr, you’re so pretty,” Josh giggles, reaching out to kiss Tyler for the billionth time. This time however, Tyler turns his head so Josh kisses him on the lips, and it isn’t long before they are forcefully making out. Josh pushes his hands under Tyler’s shirt and Tyler slides a hand under the hem of Josh’s jeans. Brendon laughs loudly.

“They are so fucked up,” he says to Spencer and Ryan, who both nod their heads in agreement. Josh and Tyler usually could handle their alcohol and drugs. They went slow, and it took a lot to fuck them up.

But that was actor Tyler and Josh. These two are not.

Tyler pulls off Josh’s shirt and runs his hands across his chest, a loud moan ripping through his throat. Josh pulls off of him with a loud pop, and turns towards Brendon. He reaches for the joint Brendon currently has in his hands.

“Gimme.”

“I don’t think you need anymore buddy,” Brendon chuckles, but he gives it to Josh anyways. After Josh has had his turn, Tyler takes a drag and they push it down into the ashtray. Brendon raises an eyebrow and sighs as the two of them go back to eating each other’s faces.

“We should probably take them home,” Ryan shouts over the music.

Brendon and Spencer agree.

***

Josh wakes up with a pounding headache.

There is light shining in through a window and he groans, pulling the pillow over his head. He hates mornings. They don’t need to be this way. The sun can go far far far away.

Someone stirs next to him.

And Josh sits up in a panic.

Because _shit shit shit_ Josh completely forgot that he and Tyler were not in their world, and last night he got fucking hammered and can’t remember a single thing that happened. They are back in the master bedroom of their fake house, but he can’t remember how they got back.

And his ass hurts like no tomorrow.

Josh’s breathing is heavy as he lifts the comforter off of him.

By the time he’s fallen to the floor, Josh is gasping for air because he is naked and Tyler was in bed next to him.

They had sex.

They had _sex_ and Josh can’t remember any of it.

“Josh?” Tyler says groggily as he pushes up in bed and leans against his elbow. He blinks a couple of times with a groan, eyes trying to adjust to the light. His hair is mussed and he has a five o’clock shadow on his face and _God_ , it’s no surprise Josh has had a crush on him for such a long time.

Josh is still hyperventilating and can’t find the energy to create a sentence. They’ve been here a single day, one _fucking_ day, and look where they are now.

Tyler looks over at Josh gasping for air naked on the floor and lets out a sigh. He lifts the comforter to see he is also wearing no clothing.

“Great,” he mutters, running a hand through his hair. Josh’s eyes widen. Why is Tyler not freaking out? Tyler should be freaking out.

“HOW ARE YOU NOT FREAKING OUT?” he finally yells in one panicked breath, shifting so he can hide his dick from Tyler’s view. Tyler doesn’t need to see that.

“Dude. We’re in an _alternate universe_ where we are dating, our friend’s original jobs don’t exist, we’re on a TV show about _OUR_ band, and I’m covered in tattoos and piercings. Waking up _naked_ in the same bed is NOT the weirdest thing to happen to me in the last 48 hours.”

“I can’t remember anything that happened last night.” Josh grips the side of his head and grimaces. His brain is still pounding against his skull.

“Either can I, but I can use my detective skills to guess what happened.” Tyler looks away from Josh with a sad look on his face, and Josh feels his heart break.

“I’m so sorry Tyler, I’m so so, _so_ sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” Tyler shrugs. “We can’t change what happened.” Suddenly, he smirks and Josh is confused. “My ass doesn’t hurt. Does yours?”

Josh doesn’t answer, just narrows his eyes and glares.

“Told you I’d top.”

Before Josh can reply with something snarky the bedroom door pushes open and Josh is sent scrambling back into the bed, yanking the duvet to his chin.

“Well well well, isn’t it my favourite fake couple.” Brendon flashes a devilish grin, and Tyler and Josh share a concerned look. Josh lowers the comforter to his lap.

“Fake couple?” Tyler stutters, dragging a hand through his hair nervously. Brendon rolls his eyes.

“Cut the crap you too. I don’t know who you are, but you certainly aren’t _my_ Josh and Tyler. So what the fuck is going on?”

Josh looks over at Tyler before shifting his gaze to Brendon’s angry expression. He swallows. “Why do you think that?”

“It took one joint and like four beers between the two of you to get you both high as fuck. And it took you getting high as fuck to actually fuck. And trust me, I’m sure the entire world could hear the two of you last night. So who the fuck are you?”

Tyler sighs. “Fine. Okay, look. This is going to sound weird. But we promise we aren’t lying.”

“Let me guess. The two of you are Josh and Tyler from some weird strange dimension where everything and everyone is different and somehow you ended up here.” Brendon laughs loudly, obviously pleased with his joke.

Josh and Tyler wished it was a joke.

“Uh, yeah actually. That’s about it.”

“Oh.” Brendon stops laughing. “Seriously?”

“Yeah seriously. We aren’t actors. We are in a band. Twenty One Pilots? Yeah, that’s our band. It’s real. I am the lead singer, Josh is the lead drummer, and we go on tours. We don’t party, we don’t drink, we don’t do drugs, and we aren’t dating. I’m married.” Tyler shakes his head and sighs again. “In fact, we don’t do much besides chug Redbull and binge on Mexican food.”

“Well, I can give you the benefit of the doubt that neither of you can act to save your lives. Or party for that matter. So yeah, I can believe it.”

“We were in the middle of a show, like, a real life show, and suddenly we were on this TV set and I was covered in tattoos and piercings.”

“Wait.” Brendon looks at Tyler closely. “You don’t actually look like that?”

“No. Thank God. But Josh does.”

Josh glares.

“And now we’re stuck here.”

“There was this weird necklace that Tyler bought,” Josh adds. “he got it from this small antique store in Columbus. And now it’s missing, and I’m pretty sure the shop owner cursed us.”

“Columbus... Ohio?” Brendon asks, tilting his head in confusion. Josh nods at the same time Tyler scoffs.

“That’s not true. We don’t know how to get back. So we were just gonna fake it till we made it.”

“Wait wait wait. So you can actually sing? Like, you’re in a band? Do people like your band?”

“Yeah, people like our band. Our Brendon is in a band too.”

Brendon’s eyes widen in shock. “What?”

“It’s true!” Josh exclaims. “You’re the lead singer of Panic.”

“So in your world... I’m the lead singer of this fake band i’m the fake lead singer of in this world? What the fuck?”

“You’re also married. To a girl.”

“WHAT? No. Nononono. I’m gay. I’m really fucking gay.”

“I mean, you’re also pretty gay in our universe, but Sarah is okay with it.”

“Sarah?” Brendon repeats, hoping he heard wrong. “As in Sarah, my manager? Oh my god.”

“Yeah. And Pete and Patrick are in a band called Fall Out Boy. They are pretty good. You’re also pretty good. In our world, we have good music.”

“Wow.” Brendon rubs his eyes. “Are you sure I'm married to a girl in your world?”

“Yeah, I'm pretty sure. You gotta help us get back there.”

“Wait. So you two aren’t gay.”

“No,” the two of them both say, even though Josh has thought about it and has determined that he might be.

“But you just had sex!” Brendon groans audibly and smacks his forehead with a palm. Josh turns red.

“Yeah, obviously. We weren’t ourselves. Whoops.” Tyler rolls his eyes. “You have to help us find that pedant. It’s somewhere at the studio. We don’t know where. And then we have to figure out a way to get back.”

Brendon sighs again. “Fine. Okay, I’ll help you. But you gotta get clothes on. Patrick is gonna be here soon to pick you up for work.”

“Shit.” Josh pinches the bridge of his nose.

Brendon snorts. “Shit is right. You can’t act. So good luck.”

Tyler gets out of bed and heads towards the bathroom, Brendon’s eyes following him. He raises an eyebrow.

“I’ll be downstairs. You’ve got half an hour.” Then he disappears, leaving just two.

Josh hears the shower turn on and then Tyler pops his head out from behind the bathroom door with a grim expression on his face. He shakes his head and sighs.  

“We’re fucked.”

Josh couldn't agree more.

 

 


	4. 004

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long for me to update. School sucks.

Patrick doesn’t say a single word as Josh and Tyler climb into the back seat. They are both wearing sunglasses, hair still sopping wet and heads pounding like no tomorrow. Neither of them thought to ask for or bring Tylenol.

Brendon is already lounging in the passenger seat, his feet kicked up on the dashboard and arms tightly folded across his chest. He cranes his neck just enough to flash a smirk.

Josh shifts uncomfortably, sliding farther into the seat to the point where he’s barely sitting anymore. Tyler looks out the window in annoyance and Patrick stares at the both of them in suspicion.

“Late night?” he asks as the car pulls out of the driveway. Brendon laughs loudly at the same time Tyler huffs.

“That’s an understatement.”

“I’m not really surprised.” Patrick chuckles softly. “Are you doing some filming today Bren? I didn’t even realize you were back from Manila.”

“Nah, I’m not doing any filming. But I got back yesterday and went out with the boys. They got hammered man. You should have seen ‘em.”

“Was it worse than London?”

“Nah. Nothing is ever gonna be worse than London. Ain’t that right Ty-guy?”

Tyler looks over to shoot Brendon a glare, which he knows Brendon can’t see behind the dark frames of his sunglasses. “Oh yeah. You know it.”

“I’m sure Pete will have some pain meds for you two. He’s usually prepared.”

“And speaking of Pete...” Brendon exchanges one sitting position for another, crossing one leg over the other. His grin grows larger. “Are you busy this weekend?”

“Unless you guys need me, I don’t think so. What’s up?”

“Pete’s got the hots for you man. Ty and Josh were supposed to tell you that but I think it slipped their mind.”

Patrick rolls his eyes, face starting to blossom into a blush. “Oh, don’t worry. I don’t need them to tell me that. I can tell. Tell him to get the courage to ask me out and we’ll talk about it.” Brendon cheers, and Tyler grumbles. All he wants is to go home.

When they arrive at the studio, Patrick waves goodbye, shouting out “Remember to tell Pete what I said!” before driving off. Brendon leads the way into the building, dead, zombie like Tyler and Josh shuffling behind him. He’s quite cheery this morning, smiling and saying hello to everyone who walks by.

“Hey man, about last night? Let’s not talk about it ever again, okay? I mean, we were both pretty messed up. Not thinking straight, you know? I think it’s better to just forget about it.” Tyler says in a low voice, eyes flickering behind his sunglasses to make sure no one heard them. He’s aware they probably look like huge douchebags wearing sunglasses indoors, but the light is already not helping with their hangover and this is the best they can do at the moment.

If Josh is being completely honest with himself, he wishes he could remember what they actually did so he could “forget about it.” Instead, he’s going to be left in the dark wishing it could happen again. And Josh knows that’s never going to happen.

“Yeah.” he forces himself to smile. “We can forget about it. It never happened.”

“Cool. Uh, sorry you’re uh, ass hurts.”

Josh turns red. “Yep. We forgot about it, remember?”

Tyler clears his throat before sharply nodding his head and increasing his pace so he’s no longer walking besides Josh. He’s kinda thankful for that.

Brendon leads them to their dressing room where Pete is sitting on a couch, three coffees and a piece of apple pie sitting on a coffee table in front of him. Besides a full head of dark hair, the boys are happy to see that Pete appears to look like he does back home. They aren’t sure how many more surprises they can take in 48 hours.

“Damn, you both look awful.” Pete exclaims the minute he sees the three of them. “Hey Brendon. Good to see you again.”

“Good to see you Peter. Patrick wanted me to tell you that he thinks you should stop being a pussy and ask him out.” Brendon’s smirk is back as he drops to the couch and reaches for the pie. Pete scowls.

“You’re an asshole Brendon Urie.”

“I know I am.”

Pete shakes his head in disgust one last time before turning towards his clients, who are standing awkwardly in front of him. Tyler’s staring at his shoes and Josh is looking everywhere but Tyler.

“How you guys feeling?”

“Not good,” Josh mumbles. He kinda wants to be as far away from Tyler as humanly possible.

“Here. I got you both coffee. Just how you like it.” Pete nudges the cups their way, and Josh is relieved that the actor version of him likes his coffee the same way he does. Pete scoots down farther so Tyler and Josh can join him and Brendon on the couch. They sip their coffee quietly. Both are incredibly thankful when Pete pulls Advil out of his bag and places the blue tablets in front of them.

“Thank you,” Tyler says weakly. He looks ready to collapse on the floor.

Josh feels terrible about that. He knows Tyler doesn’t like to drink. Neither of them thought they’d ever do drugs in their entire lifetime. Guess there was a first for everything.

Not that they were planning on ever doing it again.

“You’re welcome. Now Mark talked to me earlier this morning and he wants to try and finish episode ten and get started on eleven. You’ve got four more before the season’s over. You’ve also got a photo shoot at the end of this week and another one next week. Next week you also have to film those promos for this season as well. Unless you’d rather do those today.”

Josh and Tyler both stare at Pete like he just spoke in a completely different language. That was a lot of stuff to do for two people that didn’t know how to do any of it. Music videos were a lot different than actual acting. In music videos, Josh didn’t have to talk.

“The end of this month you’ve got a red carpet premiere to attend as well. We’ll have to get in an appointment with the suitor to figure out what the two of you are going to wear. Tyler, we need to figure out what colour to do your hair. I’m thinking red.”

“But Josh’s hair is red,” Tyler points out. He doesn’t want to dye his hair.

“No offense, but Josh’s hair looks like shit.” Josh glares as Pete shrugs his shoulders. “We can take him back to brown.”

“Uh, no.” Josh cuts in, slamming his coffee cup on the table a little too hard. “I look terrible with brown hair.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Your hair is brown.” Brendon adds, pointing his fork at Josh. Josh folds his arms with a groan.

“Exactly. Why don’t we leave Tyler’s hair alone and redo mine instead? Less work.”

“The press doesn’t care about your hair Joshua. It’s Tyler’s they want to see. I don’t know why he went back to his normal colour in the first place.”

“It’s less effort on my part,” Tyler tries. He can feel Josh staring bullets into him.

“Why are the two of you fighting me on this? It’s something we’ve discussed millions of times.”

“Okay, and now we want to change things up. We can keep Josh’s hair normal and put like a red streak in mine or something. I don’t know. Let’s just stay simple for right now.”

“Dye his hair silver,” Brendon adds obnoxiously. He’s not helping the current situation, but Josh can’t help but think about what Tyler would look like with silver hair. Or black for that matter.

“Shut up Brendon,” Tyler fights back.

Pete sighs, but it seems like he’s going to give in. “Alright, whatever. I’ll get a hair appointment for the two of you later this week. Now figure out what you want to film today so I can tell Mark and we can get ahead on our eight hours.”

They both look at each other, emotions still mostly masked by sunglasses. They both know the other is beyond terrified though.

“Promos might be easier,” Tyler suggests, but Josh doesn’t want to do either. He sighs.

“Fine. Promos it is.”

Pete smiles before excusing himself and tapping on his ear. Josh realizes he’s got a bluetooth piece in it far too late for a normal person.

“Hey Mark, we’re gonna do promos today so those can go out on air. Yep. Sure thing. You know, I was thinking about doing...” Pete’s voice trails off as he leaves the room, leaving Tyler and Josh to sit in their own distress. Brendon wiggles his eyebrows at the two of them before placing his now empty plate back on the table.

“Promos were a good choice dudes. Keep in mind all you have to do is say your names and your TV show.”

It then suddenly occurs to Tyler that they really didn’t know much about their own TV show besides the small section Josh had read on Wikipedia. “Give us an overview of this show. We barely know anything.”

“Okay. 2009 was your debut season. Josh wasn’t apart of the band in this season, he was just your friend at this point. There were two other guys in the band.”

“Okay...” Tyler replies. That wasn’t that hard to remember. It was factual information.

“The whole season was pretty much about you putting the band out there, and about Josh worming his way in with you and how you met. He didn’t officially become a main character until 2011, and then it was the two of you in the band. The second season was about the success the band had in Ohio and you started touring and stuff. Nothing big. By the way, you started dating this season, in the show and off. It started off as a publicity stunt but apparently Josh is a really good kisser.”

Josh blushes, causing Brendon to raise an eyebrow. Tyler yells at him to continue.

“The show takes off seasons, mind you. Kind of like mini hiatuses. 2013 was the year the show really took off. The band got signed to a record label, and that’s where I came in.” Brendon smiles triumphantly. “I’m pretty sure I skyrocketed views.”

“Come on Brendon.”

“Jeez. You’re so pushy.” he shakes his head in annoyance. “That season put your show on one of the top spots. You went on talk shows and got invited to all those big award shows and everything. And now you’re filming your fourth season. This season is a completely new look. Tyler, you’re all tough and punk and creepy and Josh is this mysterious tough guy who jokes a lot. There’s some marketing plan involved that’s supposed to freak everyone out or something.”

Tyler scoffs. He knows exactly what that is. “So is there really a point to this show or...”

“It’s entertaining. I don’t know. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean other people will.”

“Let me guess. The episodes on this show have names, correct?”

“Yep.”

“Ode to sleep? Holding Onto You? Migraine? Truce?”

Brendon blinks. “No way. Those are your legit songs?”

“Tyler wrote them,” Josh adds to the conversation. Tyler nods his head.

“Yeah. They’re ours. In our world anyways.”

“Dude! They have writers and professional musicians write what is shown in the show. Congrats man. That’s sick.”

“Brendon, you’re a songwriter. You can do the same thing.”

“Not in this world guys.” He nods towards Hayley who’s got one half of her body in the doorway. She’s smiling. “Looks like that’s your cue.”

“Hey guys! How we feeling?”

“Good luck with them,” Brendon winks and pats Hayley on the back. “I’ll see you later guys.” Then he’s taking off out the door and down the hallway the same way Hayley came. She glances between the three of them in confusion.

“Late night,” Tyler declares as he picks himself up off the couch and, as much as he doesn’t want to, peels off his sunglasses. He’s automatically squinting and rubbing his head in the roaring light.

Hayley sighs, a sympathetic smile finding its way onto her face. “Sorry guys. You look terrible.”

“So we’ve heard.” Josh copies Tyler’s previous movements and points out the doorway with a sigh. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“Okie dokie!” She leads them off through the halls where it’s just as chaotic as it was the previous day. The two are extremely nervous, not knowing what to expect. Tyler knows they’re going to cover him in makeup again. Maybe it will be comforting to see himself looking like his normal boring self.

Hayley pushes Josh back into the chair he sat in the previous night, allowing Debby to do the same with Tyler. Both girls peel off shirts and get to work on hair and makeup.

“What are we doing today boys?” Hayley asks with a lot of enthusiasm. It’s nice to know she has the same spunky attitude in this world as she does back home.

“Promos,” replies Tyler unenthusiastically. He notes that the other girls from yesterday aren’t here today and wonders if anyone else will be coming in for them.

“That’s exciting,” Debby comments with a smile. Tyler notices she keeps looking over at Josh in short glances through his eyelashes, red lips pressed tightly. He wonders if they have any “business” in this world.

“Getting people hyped for the new season, hmm? I can’t wait to start seeing those on air. We will make you look incredible.” Hayley pulls open a drawer to reveal it full of makeup, and pulls out everything she needs including foundation and an eyeshadow pallet. Josh frowns as she begins to put it all over his face. “Did Pete want anything in particular?”

“Mmhmm,” Debby answers, pointing to her iPhone on the countertop. “Dark and mischievous is what he said. Less foundation on Ty’s tats, darken the black on his hands and neck, make the red brighter for Josh, dark clothes, that kind of stuff. I think he might have wanted to leave Ty’s piercings in as well.”

Hayley looks up at the clock with a small frown. “Alright, make them look intense. We can do that. Did Jenna say she was coming in today?”

Tyler’s heart stops as he reaches out to grab Debby’s arm, checking to make sure he heard right. “Did you just say Jenna?”

Debby raises an eyebrow. “You feeling okay Ty?”

“Hangover,” Josh is fast to reply, and his tone comes out a little more high-pitched than it probably should be. Tyler needs to stop asking stupid questions.

“Of course, because Jenna is a regular who works here all the time.” Tyler laughs awkwardly, pushing back uncomfortably into his chair. At least he’ll get to see her.

“Anyways...” Debby smacks her gum and reaches for the foundation Hayley’s discarded on the counter. “She said she’d come in later to help with removal. I can give her a call if you want me too?”

“Let me do it,” Tyler demands as he holds out his hands impatiently for the phone. Debby raises an eyebrow and instead begins to rub in the foundation all over his face. Tyler scowls.

“Why would you want to call Jenna?”

“Because she’s my wife,” Tyler replies nonchalantly, and Josh chokes on air. “My life, she's my life," he tries again but it isn't any better. Debby and Hayley are still staring at him in confusion and suspicion. "She's my life... Because... Uhm..."

Oh yeah. Tyler fucked up.

“It’s an inside joke,” Josh finishes, forcing out a nervous laugh. “We have so many of those. Pete’s my life, Brendon’s my life, Jenna’s my life, everyone is my life. You had to be there."

"Right." Debby shakes her head, probably used to all the strangeness that goes on in this studio. She goes back to rubbing more makeup on Tyler’s face, causing him to scowl again.

Hayley rolls her eyes at the scene and starts to dab ruby red around Josh’s eyes with gentle strokes. “We can have her come in later. I think we can handle these two for right now. It’s not anything we haven’t handled before.”

Tyler sighs sadly. Josh pretends not to notice.

Fifteen minutes later, both boys are ready to go. Josh is clad up in his usual stage attire, while Tyler looks a little more... what’s the right word? Punk? Maybe, but whatever it is, Tyler looks fucking hot in Josh’s eyes. He’s wearing eyeliner for one thing, which highlights the dark brown of his eyes and makes Josh want to climb into a hole for all eternity. They left his lip ring and gauges in, and only covered up a few of his several tattoos in foundation, highlighting the thick paint on his arms and neck. His hair is gelled, and dark. Finished with tight black skinny jeans and a black muscle tee, Tyler has never looked better.

Josh thinks he might start panting. He wants to slam Tyler into the wall and kiss him.

Wants to suck on that lip ring of his.

Hayley leads them to the stage, where Pete and Mark greet them with ease. Mark’s wearing a suit jacket today, which is weird.

“Ahh boys, you look so nice. Well done, Hayley.” Mark clasps his hands together as Hayley beams and turns towards Pete. “What about his hair?”

Pete opens his mouth to speak, but Mark shoves a finger in his face and pauses to shoo Hayley away. She nods before scampering off stage, and Mark is back to talking.

“We’ll keep that a surprise. Something to match our theme, huh? Redo Dun’s please, the red is good.” Mark gasps. “Yes yes, black. That’s what we need. Black. Do his hair black.” He points to Tyler with a large smile on his face and gestures to green screen in front of them. “Promos today boys, we have a lot we need to do. I assume you got your lines?”

“Uhh...” Tyler shakes his head while Josh pulls at his shirt collar. Mark sighs.

“Peter? We talked about this?”

“They had a long night,” Pete argues, fishing in his bag. He pulls out a stack of papers. “Here. Lines.”

“Those are for the episodes,” Mark shakes his head in annoyance and grabs the papers from them. “All is well. We just need you to put the pizzazz into these like you usually do. Look dramatic. Hang on each other. Leave the audience wanting more. Get into character. This season is supposed to be darker than all the other ones. You’ll introduce yourselves, say the name of your show, when you can watch it, and that’s it. We’ll do several takes and see the outcome.” He pulls on each of their arms, dragging them over and positioning them in front of the green screen. Josh can’t help but think Tyler kind of looks like a lost puppy in the middle of a rainstorm.

“Okay Tyler, you stand here,” Mark positions Tyler so he has one arm on Josh’s shoulder and the other draped lazily by his side. Tyler resists his urge to scowl. He knows they are supposed to be pretending, but this is starting to get really hard and really annoying. There’s no way they are going to be able to act. Promos, those aren’t going to be the hardest thing. They’ll be uncomfortable, sure. No, it’s going to be the actual acting part. Because Tyler can’t act for shit, and he knows for certain Josh can’t either.

“We look ridiculous,” Josh mumbles under his breath. Tyler snickers in response, causing Mark to frown.

“You look how I want you to look. Now when I say action, I want Tyler to look into the camera seductively and lean over to whisper something in Josh’s ear. Kiss him maybe. The camera will get a couple angles and then we’ll move on to the next one where you’ll talk. We’ll move on from there.”

Tyler doesn’t even try and hide his disgust. “Why the hell are we doing this?”

“What?”

“This. What does this have to do with the show at all?”

“Hype. Appearance. Views. Why are you freaking out about this? Is it the new look? Is that what’s bothering you?”

“Yeah Ty, why are you freaking out about this?” He didn’t like the way Tyler acted like he was disgusted by the whole thing. Frankly, he didn’t like the way Tyler was acting at all today. He knew they messed up, but they couldn’t come back from that. They had to move on. Who knew how long they were going to be here?

“I’m freaking out because I’m annoyed. I think _this,_ ” he gestures to the stage, “is utterly ridiculous and I don’t want to be here.”

“Okay, that’s it. If you’ll excuse us.” Josh yanks Tyler by the arm and drags him over to the other side of the set, despite his protests and the nails digging into his hand. He practically tosses Tyler to the side when he lets him go.

“What the hell Josh?”

“Yeah Tyler, what the _hell?_ What is wrong with you today? Why are you acting like such a dick?”

Tyler shakes his head in disgust. “You know what’s wrong with me? This. This world. Everything here. I don’t like being here. I don’t like pretending. I don’t like thinking that we might be stuck in a world where Jenna does my goddamn makeup and I have to pretend I’m dating you. Pretend that I go home every night and put my dick in your ass. I didn’t become an actor for a reason. I don’t want to be an actor ever. I don’t want to pretend-” he takes a deep breath, trying to collect himself, but instead a sob rips through his body and Josh can only sigh and frown. He tries to hug his friend, but Tyler shoves him away. “For Christ’s sake Josh, we had sex! Do you know how utterly fucked up that is? You’re my best friend, I’m not supposed to ever...” he’s trying so hard not to cry, trying to hard to ruin any of the makeup that’s on his face, on his hands, on his neck, because he has to stay perfect, has to look the part, no matter how much he doesn’t want to. “I want to go home Josh.”

“You don’t think I want to go home either Ty? Of course I want to go home! But we can’t go home until we find that amulet and get back to Columbus. We can’t do anything until-”

“Stop. Stop it right now. I don’t want to hear anything. I don’t want to hear you claim that fucking necklace is what put it here. I just want you to stay far, _far_ away from me.”

“Tyler-”

“No. I realize we have to get through today, but after that, I’m done. You can sleep on the couch tonight and keep all your body parts far away from me.”

“It wasn’t just you asshole! I wasn’t sober either! Why do you keep putting all the blame on me?” Josh points a finger angrily at Tyler, who matches his stance perfectly. “It wasn’t my fault! I don’t know what I did for you to start acting like this is all my fault. I didn’t want to go into that stupid store, you did. I didn’t want to buy a stupid necklace, you did. You probably wanted to sleep with me too.”

“Never in a million years would I ever want to sleep with you,” Tyler spits out in fury, and Josh can feel his heart break. He can’t let Tyler know, can’t let anyone ever know that he’s had a big fat freaking crush on his friend since the moment he laid eyes on him.

“Well good.” his voice cracks. Fuck. “I would never want to sleep with you either. Look, I know this sucks, but I said it once and I’ll say it again. We have to pretend. We can’t ruin our alternate selves’ lives. We can’t get them fired from their jobs or whatever.”

“Fine. Whatever. I’ll pretend, but I still don’t want to talk to you if I don’t have to. I don’t want to see you if I don’t have to.” Tyler sneers again, before turning on his heel and stomping away back to where Mark is standing in a state of “what the actual fuck just happened” ness. Josh follows suit, his anxiety now through the roof. Tyler hates him, and that's the exact opposite of what he wanted to happen.

“Roll the cameras, let’s get this stupid thing over with,” demands Tyler right as Josh joins him back on set. He throws his arm up on Josh’s shoulder and looks right at the camera as Mark swallows and rushes to his chair. Josh blinks. Tyler looks really attractive when he’s angry, he decides.

“Er, right. Alright, uhm, action.” Mark stumbles over his words, and Josh really doesn’t blame him.

Tyler immediately bites his lip and traces his fingers down Josh’s arm, causing Josh himself to shiver under his touch. He’s trying so hard not to look over at Tyler, trying so hard not to even think about him or what he’s doing right now. He just looks into the camera and does what he’s supposed to do because the faster they film these the faster they can get out. He feels Tyler’s breath on his ear, feels him bite down on the cartilage, feels his goddamn tongue on his cheek and all he can think is _what the everlasting fuck is Tyler doing_ because he just ranted about never wanting to see Josh again and now he’s licking him.

And then he feels Tyler’s hand on his crotch and he has to stop.

“Cut!” Mark yells, and Tyler shoves Josh away. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, glaring at Josh as Mark comes over to join them. “That was good you guys. Perfect. Damn Tyler, I knew I could trust you. You don’t disappoint at all. Few more like that, and we’re good to go. FBR is going to love this shit.”

“FBR... Fueled By Ramen?” Josh chuckles and presses a palm to his forehead. “It’s the TV network. That is genius. Genius.”

“Er... Right. Anyways, you keep up the good work boys and we’ll have these finished in no time.” Mark leaves to go back to his chair and Tyler continues glaring at Josh. In fact, it’s starting to make him uncomfortable. He doesn’t understand what Tyler is doing.

Suddenly, Josh realizes that Tyler is pretty dominant, and that’s makes him want to do things he probably shouldn’t be thinking about.

***

When the work day is over, Hayley leads them back to the makeup room to get them cleaned up and ready to go. They are to be back at work bright and early tomorrow morning, according to Mark.

Debby isn’t in there when Hayley brings them back.

Jenna is.

And Tyler almost faints.

It feels like _years_ since he last saw her, and seeing her in this world makes him stop breathing. He knows it isn’t her, but just being in her presence makes him feel a little better.

She’s gentle taking off his shirt and removing makeup. And she smiles the whole time.

“Good day today Mr. Joseph?” she asks, and Tyler can’t reply. He only nods and closes his eyes.

Josh watches from his chair in what might be almost disgust. He’s jealous. Envious. Pissed off.

Because even in this world, she’s getting more attention from Tyler than he ever will.

“Thank you Jenna. God, thank you.” Tyler says once she says she’s finished. Josh continues to stare through narrowed eyes, envy running through his veins instead of blood. He hates it here just as much as Tyler does.

She raises an eyebrow, but says nothing more. “You’re welcome sir. I’ll see you at the end of next week. My boyfriend and I are off to Mexico.”

Tyler’s heart sinks.

Right. This isn’t their world.

Isn’t their goddamn frickin’ world.

“That, uh, sounds du- like fun. It sounds like so much fun.” He clenches his jaw and slides the shirt she’s just offered him over his head. “So much fucking fun.”

“Are you alright?” Hayley is the one that asks this time. She’s looking over at Tyler with just as much curiosity as Josh.

“I’m fine. Actually, I’m not. Josh and I are having problems.”

Josh’s jaw drops. “Tyler!”

“It’s true. I don’t think I love him anymore.”

“You’re being melodramatic.”

“I’m really not.” Tyler shrugs and pushes out of his chair. Then he pulls Jenna into the biggest hug he can muster and resists his urge to kiss her.

“Oh, sir, uhm.” Jenna is surprised by Tyler’s hug, and stands there awkwardly until he’s finished. Tyler could care less about what anyone thinks at the moment.

“See you later.” Then he stomps off down the hallway.

“I should probably follow him,” Josh whispers as he stands up. Hayley gently lays a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you gonna be okay babe?” she gives him worrying look, but Josh shakes it off and nods.

“Tyler’s moody today. Probably low on testosterone is all. He’ll be fine tomorrow. I’ll talk to him, don’t worry.” Josh then forces a smile and follows Tyler down the hallway.

His last thought is that they didn’t even bother looking for the pendant in the first place.

Like they were supposed to.

 

 


	5. 005

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the plot thickens...

Josh lays on the couch that night, a thin blanket draped over his body. He’s currently contemplating his life choices at the moment.

Conversing with Tyler had proven to be rather difficult. He ignored Josh's every word and refused to even look at him. When Patrick had dropped them off, Tyler clambered out quicker than he ever had before. Patrick had given Josh a sympathetic look, asked him if everything was alright, and then only drove off after Josh assured him everything was fine.

Of course, everything was not fine.

And when Josh went up those stairs and down to the bedroom to once again try and talk to Tyler, the door was locked. It was blatantly evident Tyler wasn't going to talk anytime soon, so Josh went downstairs to the den covered in those goddamn X-box games and put his head in his hands.

"Mr. Dun?"

He had looked up to see the maid with her gentle face and kind eyes and felt even more guilty. Then she sat down on the end of the couch and twisted her hands together in her lap. Josh stared at her in confusion, oblivious to what she wanted.

"I know I'm not supposed to intrude, and I know it's disrespectful, but may I speak freely?"

He blinked, not knowing how to answer that question. No one had ever asked him that.

"Uh, yeah, sure. You can talk."

"Mr. Joseph," she pointed up at the ceiling, "is a pretty emotional guy. And he gets in these states where he thinks he's right about something and won't let anybody talk to him. Of course, you're familiar with this. So whatever he's blaming you for, don't put all of it on yourself. Even if it was your fault. He'll come around in a few days and get out of his funk." Then she smiled.

_Maria._

Her name appeared in Josh's head clear as day and he didn't know how that was even possible.

"Thank you," he whispered, and she nodded as she stood up.

"I'll make you some coffee Mr. Dun."

"Black please. Could you get me my laptop too Maria?" Her name had felt foreign on his tongue. It felt like a word he shouldn't be saying.

“Of course sir.”

Josh spent the rest of the evening watching clips of Actor Tyler and Josh in interviews, on red carpets, in their show. They looked so happy holding hands, kissing one another, whispering sweet nothings into their ears. It made his heart hurt, knowing how happy the two were in this world, even if they were pretentious assholes. Josh would never get this in his world.

So maybe being stuck here wouldn't be too bad.

And that leaves him here now, staring up at the ceiling at three o'clock in the morning unable to sleep. Unable to think of anything but Tyler.

His goddamn best friend he’s fallen in love with.

Around five Josh gives up and decides to get on with his day. He wanders upstairs in his boxers, hoping maybe there’s some way Tyler unlocked the door so he can get in and change his clothes.

Unfortunately, the door is still locked. Josh curses.

With all these rooms in the house, there’s bound to be one with a shower. So he goes looking. Finds one. Takes his shower.

And lays naked on the bed in a random room, staring up at the ceiling once more.

“What was I thinking?” he whispers, rubbing his eyes with his hands. They needed to find that pendant. Needed to get back to Columbus. Needed to find that creepy old guy and put him in his place. He told Tyler to be careful, and Tyler hadn’t been careful. it was Tyler’s fault they were stuck here.

_I did it for you Joshua._

Josh sits up and looks around the room. It’s pitch black, still too early for the sun to have come up. Those aren’t his words in his head. He doesn’t know whose they are.

He doesn’t want to know.

So instead, Josh stares at himself before running fingers through his hair, and placing a hand on his inner thigh. He sighs, eyes fluttering shut as he pictures Tyler with his mussed hair and five o’clock shadow pressing his fingers to Josh’s thigh as his lips press butterfly kisses to his jaw. Pictures Tyler straddling him, biting down on his neck, lips sliding up to his ear. Pictures Tyler kissing him hard, Josh’s teeth biting hard on that lip ring of his. Pictures Tyler moaning.

He sighs again. “It’s too damn early for this.”

***

Around six-thirty, Josh can hear Maria pounding on Tyler’s door. He pokes his head out the door of the guest room and stares. Maria says something, Tyler opens the door, and she turns to leave.

The door’s unlocked.

_Thank God._

She spots Josh on her way down the hallway and smiles, pausing to speak with him. He makes sure his naked body is hidden behind the door and out of view.

“You should be able to go in now,” she whispers, eyes wandering back to the master bedroom. Then she quickly slips him a tiny bottle filled with a gold liquid from her pocket. “I know you don't belong in this world Mr. Dun. I’ve known you were coming for a long time. I put those words in your head.”

“What?” Josh stares at her in confusion.

“I can’t tell you much, because it’ll be violation of my contract. But listen to me. I’m here to help you. I’m here because you called. I’m working with someone in your world, acting as the inside ears. It’s important that you have Mr. Joseph drink this.”

“Maria? What are you talking about? What is this?”

She looks back over at the master suite. “Not now. Later. Things will be explained later.” Maria smiles once more before taking off down the hallway. Halfway, she turns back around. “Keep yourself indecent. At least, when you go in there.”

Then she’s gone, leaving Josh in a state of major confusion. He didn’t call for anyone.

Did that mean she was working with that creepy old guy? Why would she do that? How could that even be possible?

Then again, none of this was possible.

Josh stares at the bottle in his hand, rolling it in between his fingers. He doesn't recognize the writing on the bottle. He can’t give this to Tyler. It could be poison for all he knows. She could be the maid from _Clue_ or something, trying to frame him for murder. With all the other changes in this universe, that wouldn’t be surprising.

So he tucks that little bottle in the bedside drawer and makes his way to the bedroom to find some fresh clothes. Tyler is in the bathroom at the moment, which is good. Josh isn’t quite sure what he would do if-

“Jesus Josh, put some clothes on.” Josh jumps a good three feet in the air, hitting his head on the closet door in the process. He can feel his heart beating a mile a minute as he shifts through clothes with shaky hands, trying his hardest to find some goddamn boxers as quickly as possible.

“Sorry, sorry. I was trying to find some before you walked in.” Finally, he finds some and slides them onto his body. Tyler scoffs loudly and joins Josh in the closet. His towel slips to the floor and Josh immediately slaps a hand over his mouth. Tyler’s muscles are still glistening with droplets of water and the way they ripple as he rolls his shoulders back forces a muffled moan from Josh himself. Tyler raises an eyebrow at Josh who is currently trying to shove his entire fist in his mouth. With another sigh, he pulls out clothes and leaves Josh a whimpering mess.

Pathetic, that’s what he is.

He thinks about that little bottle of gold liquid hidden in the guest bedroom. Thinks about what Maria said. _It’s important that you have Mr. Joseph drink this._

What was it that having Tyler drink it would be so important?

He's so very confused by this. Josh wants answers.

“Soon,” he whispers as he pulls on a shirt and jeans. “I’ll get answers soon.”

***

They start working on episodes today.

Tyler continues to ignore him.

The two of them don’t want to do any acting at all, but Pete’s made it very obvious they are on a tight schedule and have to get this done. Mark’s full of smiles today as he straightens his tie and checks the time on his phone.

Tyler scratches at his arm, staring at the cameras. Josh wishes he was six feet under.

“Episode eleven today boys. Figured you deserved a fresh start.” Mark pushes the sleeves of his jacket up to the crook of his elbows and moves behind the cameras to sit in his chair. “The Message Man sends his regards.”

Tyler snorts.

And then he’s in full blown laughter.

It’s almost psychotic, his laughter. Everyone in the room is staring at him like he’s crazy.

“Tyler,” Josh whispers, face full of worry. They’ve only been in this world three days, surely Tyler could handle himself at this point. So far, that's proven to be a lie.

“Did you hear what he said? Message Man. Like the song.” he lets out another loud laugh.

“Tyler, please. Not here. Not now.” Josh reaches out to place one hand on the side of Tyler’s head, and surprisingly he doesn’t pull away.

“I wrote that song. Me. I did. Not any of these fake writers here.” Tyler raises his voice. “You hear me? You’re all fake!”

“Ty,” Josh says softly, curling his fingers in Tyler’s hair. “You gotta calm down.”

“I don’t like this universe Joshie,” he starts to break down into tears, “we have to get out of this universe.”

“I know Ty, I know. You gotta be strong.” he sighs as Tyler leans his entire weight into a hug, and then he’s full on sobbing into Josh’s shoulder. Josh tries his best to sooth his friend, but everyone is still watching them.

“Uhm... let’s uh, take five.” Mark waves his hand, and the set busies. Josh pulls Tyler backstage and takes him to the restroom. He sits Tyler down on the closed toilet lid and offers him a kleenex.

After five minutes, Josh asks, “how you doing buddy?”

Tyler shrugs. Rolls his shoulders back. Pulls on the collar of his shirt. “I’m fine. Sorry, I lost my cool. This world is doing stuff to my head.” He’s still acting cold.

“S’fine Ty. I understand your frustration.”

He stands up and slides his hands into his pockets. There’s something in his eyes that’s different. Something that’s not fully Tyler. This world truly is doing something to his head.

“This doesn’t change anything. I still don’t want anything to do with you.”

“Tyler-” the door slams shut, leaving Josh alone. He sighs.

_It’s important that you have Mr. Joseph drink this._

“No,” he says out loud. He won’t stoop to such measures. He doesn’t even know what it is; how could he even think of doing that?

Josh leaves the restroom and joins the crew back on the floor just in time to see Mark talking with Tyler. Mark looks annoyed.

“Joseph, we don’t have time for personal days. You know this. I don’t know what you have been taking these past few days but we simply cannot afford to-”

“My job doesn’t matter at the moment, my health does. And I say I’m taking a personal day.”

Mark sighs. “Very well. See you tomorrow.”

“Oh fuck you,” Tyler replies as he walks off stage, shoving people out of his way in the process. Josh shakes his head, running a hand through his hair. This is all too much for him for a single day.

“I’m taking the day off too Mark,” yells Josh as he takes off running off set and down the hallway. He’s taking the day off for himself. No more thoughts of Tyler wandering around in his head.

Fortunately the scenes they were filming today were pretty domestic, so Josh really didn’t have much makeup to take off. He changes back into his street clothes, wanders through the hallways until he finds the parking garage, and ventures out onto the streets of Los Angeles. He can pretend to be himself walking these streets with his sunglasses like normal. That is, if no one recognizes him. Hopefully having a different hair colour helps, because he doesn’t know what he would say if someone started asking questions.

Josh walks for a while, eyes scanning shops and people passing by him. It is then he remembers he doesn’t have a cell phone or wallet with him, and that he has absolutely no idea where the studio is in retrospect to where he is standing currently. He sighs loudly and turns around. Maybe if he just walks straight back he’ll find it easily.

In the crowd, up a few feet in front of him, is an elderly man with a head full of white hair using a cane to guide him.

Josh’s eyes widen as he realizes who the man is. Then he’s running, shoving people out of the way to reach this man. He’s going to put that guy in his place and force him to send him and Tyler home.

But when he gets further up into the crowd, the old man is gone, and Josh is left spinning in circles with hundreds of eyes staring at him like he’s crazy. Josh moves to lean against the side of a building and groans audibly. This is not how he expected his day to go.

Not at all.

“Joshua,” his name rings out in a singsong tone, and Josh whips his head from side to side to locate the source. One blink later, he’s sitting in a coffee shop across from the old man. Josh opens his mouth to speak, eyes filled with anger, but no sound comes out. It’s like someone plucked his voicebox from out of his body.

The old man’s face is full of amusement at Josh’s worried state, and he waves a sun spotted hand. “I bet you have a lot of questions Joshua, but I simply don’t have all day to answer them. I have an antique store to run back home.” He raises an eyebrow and grins. Josh frowns and instead looks around. The coffee shop they are in doesn’t even seem to be located in the United States. Everything’s written in a language that looks... French maybe?

“We are in Paris right now. I figured that was as good of a place as any, don’t you agree? It’s quite nice here, especially in the springtime.” He chuckles quietly. “Anyways Mr. Dun, it’s simply fate that you and Mr. Joseph ended up in an alternate universe. Fate that the two of you came into my store and left with that, what have you been calling it? Amulet? You may speak."

Josh lets out a large gasp for air and rubs at his eyes. This can't be real. There's no way. "You gotta take us back. Tyler's not going to survive much longer in this world. I'm not sure if I will either."

The man laughs mockingly. "You've been here less than a week. Is it truly that bad?"

"So you're admitting to putting us here?" He looks around the quaint cafe, struggling not to start yelling. "I knew it was you. Tyler didn't believe me."

"Tyler's realistic. You live in your fantasies. That's why you're in this world."

His face twists in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"You called for me Joshua. You asked for this, remember?"

Josh scoffs. "I didn't ask for shit. You're crazy."

"You asked for a miracle." The old man raises an eyebrow and chuckles softly as he leans back in his chair.

Josh states. Blinks. Opens his mouth, and decides to close it. He remembers. They were leaving for the American leg of their tour, and the night before it started Josh leaned against the bathroom door with his eyes squeezed shut.

_Please let me build up the strength to tell Tyler how I feel. Let him react normally. Or even better, feel the same way. I need a miracle here_.

It was something Josh never expected to actually happen. When he said it, it was nothing more than a fantasy. Something he pushed to the back of his head.

"Ah, you remember? You asked, and you received."

"I didn't think it would be legit."

"Most mortals don't my boy." He laughs again and leans forward to pat Josh's arm. "That's why you're here. Everything here is for you. Bringing the both you into this world was for you. It's a real world, but I thought you'd have the most fun in this one. It was between this one and one where Mr. Joseph was a raging psycho with a split personality disorder and you were the human torch, but I think this one was more simple. More fun. You get to do some things you've never dreamed of, huh?"

Josh shakes his head. "I appreciate you offering this up for my purpose, but I don't want this. I want to go home, for Tyler's sake. He's losing his goddamn mind. We can't act to save our lives and drugs and partying are not our forte. I mean, yes, we did uhm, sleep together, but not willingly. We were not ourselves."

The old man laughs and reaches forward for the empty mug on the table. When he raises it to his lips, it fills with coffee. After he puts it back on the table, he replies, "Trust me, I'm well aware. If you followed Maria's instructions like you were supposed to, I'm sure you'd find that Mr. Joseph would be behaving in a most peculiar way."

"What do you mean? That thing she told me to give to him? What does she have to do with any of this?"

"Maria is not actually your maid in this world. She works for me. I think an Ashley Frangipane is actually the maid in this world? Sounds accurate."

Josh clenches a fist before banging it on the table. "Take us back to our goddamn world. It isn't funny anymore."

"I told Mr. Joseph to be careful. He was not careful. And it seems he lost your only ticket home."

"Wrong. You can take us home. You're going to take us home. I'm not going to be the pawn in your little tricks."

"You're being so ungrateful Joshua. This was all for you. You asked, and I tried to give you what you wanted. Isn't this what you wanted? To be dating your best friend? To be in a world where everyone loves you, everyone looks forward to your television show, everyone shouts your name at the red carpet premieres. Mr. Joseph is even suited to your delicate tastes."

Josh squeezes his eyes shut. "Stop it. Stop all of this."

"I'm a very powerful man Mr. Dun, and I do not appreciate your disrespect. I could do terrible things to you. I don't think you want that, do you?"

He swallows. "No."

"That's what I thought. Now you clean up your act and go do what Maria asked you to do. I assure you it'll pay off in the end. Do that, and other tasks will soon follow. Find the necklace if you want to go home. But I promise, you won't want to go home for a while if you do what I asked of you. Understand?"

"Yes."

"Good. Then we will talk later. Goodbye Mr. Dun."

And then Josh is standing in the guest bedroom he woke up in this morning, his head pounding and thoughts reeling. He pulls out the bottle from the bedside drawer and stares at it.

"I'm sorry Tyler," he whispers before making the quick decision to tuck it into his pocket. Josh closes the door behind him as he makes his way into the hallway and turns into the master suite. There Tyler lies on the bed curled into a ball, mouth slightly ajar. He’s had a long day; Josh knows that. They’ve both had a long day.

Josh takes a deep breath and untwists the cap once the bottle is back into his hands. It smells sweet, like maple syrup. It’s definitely different from the poison he thought it would be. He feeds it into his friend's mouth, and panics once Tyler starts coughing loudly.

"You alright dude?"

Tyler nods, blinking a couple times before rubbing his eyes and massaging his throat. "Must of choked on my spit or something. That was weird." He pauses. "I need a cigarette."

"You don't smoke."

"What are you talking about?" Tyler shoots him a strange look before reaching under the mattress and pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. Josh's jaw drops.

"Where did you get those from?"

Tyler raises an eyebrow, balancing the cigarette in between his lips while he lights it and blows out smoke. "You feeling alright love? You look a bit pale." He offers him a drag, but Josh shakes his head, eyes wide in what might possibly be terror. Tyler shrugs and extinguishes it in the ashtray Josh didn’t even notice until now.

_You'll find Mr. Joseph to be behaving in a most peculiar way._

"Holy shit," Josh whispers as he buries his head in his hands. This can't be happening.

"What's up Josh? You sick or something?"

Josh looks up briefly to see Tyler changing his clothes, dropping them on the floor as he disappears into the closet. He refuses to look up from his hands, afraid of what might happen.

“M’fine,” he manages to squeak out. Tyler laughs loudly from the closet.

“You seem stressed.”

“Do I?” asks Josh innocently. He feels Tyler’s hands on his shoulders, cold where skin brushes his neck. He reaches forward to pull Josh’s head out of his hands and forces him to look him straight in the eyes.

“There’s definitely something different about you. You seem... hotter.” Tyler leans in, lips inches apart from Josh’s ear. “More appealing.”

With a thousand waves of uncomfortableness rocketing through his body, Josh shoots up off the bed and out of Tyler’s grasp. He leans against the wall and squeezes his eyes shut. There’s no way this is happening. It couldn’t be happening. Josh didn’t want this to happen.

Yet, there was a part of him that did.

A part that may have been a hundred times bigger than the part that didn’t want it.

Tyler is back over by him, cold hands sliding up his shirt. Josh shivers and refuses to open his eyes.

“Why you so stressed out Joshie? Is it me?”

“No.”

“Work?”

“No. Maybe. I don’t know.”

“Let me help take your mind off of things. Make you a little less stressed out. I feel like I haven’t touched you in forever.” His fingertips flutter over Josh’s bicep, squeezing it gently. Josh shivers again. “Relax babe. You’re so tense.”

When no reply comes from Josh, Tyler takes it as a happy invite. He moves in closer, hands toying with Josh’s belt. Josh feels like he’s sitting underwater. He can barely breathe. In fact, he’s holding his breath, thinking that if he even opens his mouth he’s going to drown.

Tyler slips his belt off and drops it to the floor, kicking it across the room with one side swipe. He undoes the button of Josh’s pants and begins tugging them off of him. Josh involuntarily shivers once more.

“Shh, it’s okay babe. I don’t mind.”

“It’s not that,” he squeaks out. Josh is pretty sure if he squeezes his eyes anymore tighter they’re going to pop out of his head. He’s not sure if he even wants to do this. It’s not even his Tyler. That Tyler he would happily do anything for.

But the truth is, it _is_ his Tyler. He just thinks that he’s the other one.

Tyler slips his fingers under the waistband of his boxers, and Josh’s hands fly out to the wall behind him. He can’t believe this is happening.

He can hear Tyler dropping to his knees, boxers sliding down as well. He’s fully exposed now and he doesn’t know how to feel about that. Tyler’s fingers are gentle on his skin and he can’t help but let out a small moan of pleasure when they brush his inner thigh. Everything about this is _wrong wrong wrong_ but it feels so _right right right._

Tyler guides Josh’s hands to the top of his head and then goes back to brushing skin. Josh tightens his grip, admittingly liking the way they feel latching on tightly to Ty’s hair like this. _Bad_ , he tells himself.

And then Tyler’s mouth is on him, biting, nipping, licking, and Josh is groaning all over again. He’s being very loud, fingers grasping onto Tyler’s hair like a lifeline, because it feels so damn _good._ And it shouldn’t.

It _really_ shouldn’t.

But it wasn’t like it was going to happen any other way. If the two of them being sent to this world really is for him, then he’s going to make the best of it.

They stay in that position for a while, Josh with his back pushed against the wall and his hands in Tyler’s hair as Ty himself moves in and out, grinning slightly each time Josh whimpers or makes some other sound.

And then he’s pulling off and dusting his hands like he’s just won a fight. He tugs on the hem of Josh’s shirt and helps him take it off before reaching down to take off the rest of his clothes. Finally, Josh opens his eyes right as Tyler stands up. He’s grinning, lips red and swollen with so much sin that Josh shivers again. _Wrong._

“C’mere babe. I got lube.” He points to the dresser drawer.

Josh gulps.

Nods.

_So fucking wrong._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shout out to those who caught my Light a Match reference. I'd like to think all the au's are coexisting. Makes for good plot.


	6. 006

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for not updating sooner, but school and work are consuming my life.
> 
> On the other hand, I did get to see TOP in concert last week, and that was probably the best experience of my life. I mean guys, I got to hold Tyler's hand for like fifteen seconds. I'm a changed person.

Josh wakes up with Tyler’s arms protectively wrapped around his waist. Tyler’s snoring softly, mouth partly open and face tucked into the pillow. It’s kind of adorable actually.

Josh also feels terrible.

He _knows_ he shouldn’t be using his friend like this, but he isn’t sure what else to do. Tyler’s behaving like actor Tyler, and actor Tyler is dating Josh. Besides, the previous night had been pretty damn great. Josh knows he shouldn’t be thinking about that; he should go find that old man again and demand that he takes them home, or at least leave to go look for the pendant. It’s just... there’s a part of him that wants this really badly. The old man had been right about Josh wanting this.

Tyler stirs next to him, shifting his arms to rub at his eyes. He grins when he notices Josh next to him. “Good morning sleepyhead.”

“Sleepyhead? You’re the sleepyhead.” Josh replies, giving him a small smile back. He tries to bury his guilt.

Tyler lets out an obnoxious yawn and curls farther into Josh’s chest. “Mmhmm. We’ve got work today.”

 _Shit_. Josh doesn’t know how he’s going to explain Tyler’s sudden “change” in behaviour to Brendon. “Yeah we do.”

“My head hurts really badly. I can’t remember anything from the past week.” A pause. “The last thing I remember is filming on Monday. What day is it?”

“Friday, I’m pretty sure.”

“Crap.” Tyler rubs at his head with a sigh. “What can’t I remember anything?”

“Uh...” Josh stutters, trying to think of an answer, “We did go out Monday night...”

“I usually would remember that. Anyways,” Tyler sits up and slides of the bed, prancing into the bathroom where Josh hears the shower turn on. “We gotta get ready for work. Come shower with me babe. It’ll go quicker.”

“Er...” Josh remains frozen, eyes staring at the door frame instead of Tyler who is currently completely naked. His guilt is starting to claw at the coffin he’s put it to rest in. “Yeah, okay.” he decides as he climbs out of bed and follows Tyler into the bathroom.

***

Later the two of them are sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast. Tyler’s scrolling on his phone with one hand while he uses his other to push around hash browns with a fork.

Josh can only stare. This is so frickin’ weird.

Suddenly, Tyler sets his phone down and leans forward on one elbow, smiling gently at Josh. “When did you dye your hair?”

“Uhm...” Josh replies, trying to think of an answer. “A while ago.”

Tyler nods his head, following it with a small chuckle. “Oh, that’s right.” he goes back to scrolling on his phone.

Josh looks down at his plate, eyes wide in an emotion he’s not quite sure of. He forces himself to finish off the section of eggs on his plate.

“Have you talked to Brendon recently? I checked our stash and we’re running low. I’m gonna need him to get us more.”

Josh’s grip on his fork is so tight his knuckles are starting to turn white.

“Josh? Hello?” Tyler waves his hand in front of him and frowns. Finally, Josh looks up and lets his fork clatter to the table. He pushes up out of his chair and stumbles backwards.

“My phone’s at 96%, I gotta go charge it really fast.” he stutters before pushing his way into the kitchen. Maria flashes him a polite smile when he comes in.

“How are things going with Mr. Joseph out there?” she nods towards the door, and Josh can only shake his head. There’s no point in talking when he isn’t going to be able to form coherent sentences.

So instead, Josh keeps going, pushing out the door at the end of the kitchen that leads to the gigantic backyard with its emerald green grass and shimmering aqua water in the swimming pool. He drops to the cement and rolls up his pant legs before letting his feet hang over the edge.

And then he calls Brendon.

“Hey J, how’s it going?” Brendon’s cheery voice makes Josh feel even more guilty, if possible.

“Eh, uhm, we, er, have a problem. It’s about Tyler.”

“Oh boy. What’s he losing his shit about now?”

Josh bites his lips and rubs at his eyes. He stares at a palm tree. “Well uh, it’s not really about something he’s freaking out about, but something that I uh, did to him.”

Brendon is quiet for a few seconds. “What did you do Josh?”

“Well, I figured out how we got here. There’s this old guy who runs this antique shop in Columbus, but I don’t actually think he does that. I think that he might be a genie or something. He’s the one that sent us here. Well, it was that necklace, but he was a part of it. And I talked to him yesterday. He told me Tyler and I were here because I wished for it. And I guess I did, kind of. I asked for the courage to tell Ty how I really feel because I’ve had this big fat freaking crush on him since the minute we met and now he’s married and I missed that chance and I guess the genie sent us here so I could have some kind of interaction with Tyler but-”

“A genie?” Brendon interrupts, “That’s uh...”

“I asked for a miracle. It was dumb. Brendon, he gave me this stuff and I gave it to Tyler and now Tyler is acting like this world’s Tyler and he keeps being all lovey-dovey with me and it’s making me feel so guilty. I mean, yesterday I let him give me-”

“Oh dude.” Brendon sighs. “You didn’t let him blow you, did you?”

Josh doesn’t answer, but his face turns bright red. He’s glad no one is around.

“Josh. Dude. I know our Josh and Tyler face fuck each other all the time, but this is a different Tyler. He’s your Tyler. Only you know how he works. And he didn’t seem very happy being away from your world.”

“I know.” Josh paws at his face again. “My guilt is eating me up and it’s only been a day. I just wanted a chance, one single chance, and now...” Josh trails off. “I feel terrible. We need to find that pendant so Tyler and I can get home and Tyler can start acting normal again. I don’t know how much longer I can spend here knowing I’m the reason Tyler thinks we’re dating. If he ever found out what we did, it would crush him.”

“Okay. I’ll come down to the studio today and look while you guys work. Good luck by the way, because now you’re the only one who is going to look ridiculous.”

“Wow, thanks,” Josh grumbles as he pulls his feet out of the pool and walks back towards the house.

“I’ll see you later. Good luck dude. Remember your morals.” Brendon clicks off, leaving Josh to wade around in his heavy guilt.

He sighs. It’s going to be a long day.

***

Tyler tries to hold Josh’s hand in the car on the way to work, but Josh pulls away and tries to sit as far away as possible. Tyler frowns.

“What’s up with you today?” he asks.

“I don’t feel well,” Josh lies. He fakes a cough, causing Tyler to narrow his eyes.

“You sure seemed fine this morning before breakfast. Why’d you leave?”

“I talked to Brendon.”

Tyler lights up. “Oh good. Did you tell him we needed more-”

“Yes,” Josh interrupts, hoping Tyler will leave him alone.

“Good,” he repeats. Tyler leans over to try and kiss Josh, but once again Josh pulls away. “What the fuck Josh? What did I do to you?”

“Nothing! You did nothing. It’s not you, I promise.” Josh shakes his head and buries it in his hands. Tyler scowls.

“You guys doing alright today?” Patrick tries, trying to pardon some of the tension.

“Mind your own fucking business,” Tyler shoots back and Josh is surprised for a split second for how rude that was of Tyler before he realizes his Tyler is not really his Tyler.

“There’s the Tyler I love,” Patrick replies snarkily. He rolls his eyes and puts on a pair of black frames.

“I’m sorry Ty. I’m just stressed out. It’s not you, I promise. Okay?” Josh looks up, trying not to think about how adorable Tyler looks when he’s angry. _God_ , does he love that lip ring.

“Alright. Well let me in on your troubles babe, I only want to help.” he leans in, gently nipping at Josh’s neck before planting a kiss. “You need a drag.”

“Oh yeah,” Josh replies under his breath, words full of sarcasm. “Totally.”

Tyler sits up and crosses his arms. “Do you know what we’re doing today? So fucking weird that I can’t remember literally anything.” he rubs at his face. “I’ve never gotten this fucked up.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Josh tries, and although Tyler takes it with a smile, it only make him feel more guilty. He mentally kicks himself. Why did he think giving Tyler that was a good idea? He let his feelings get the better of him in that one single moment and now Josh couldn’t even stand to be around his own _best friend._ He was so disappointed in himself.

Josh needs to find that stupid pendant. He decides he’s going to start looking today. He’ll quit his stupid job if he needs to. It may not be his life, but he’s going to do whatever he needs to do to get Tyler back to normal.

The minute they get to the studio, Tyler is hopping out and slamming the door, not even bothering to thank Patrick or say goodbye. Josh lingers, looking up at Patrick’s worried look in the rearview mirror.

“So Tyler... he’s back to normal I assume?” Patrick was treading water very carefully.

“I guess. He kind of had a mental breakdown yesterday...” Josh scratches at his head nervously before gesturing towards the studio. “Yeah. He’s fine. We’re fine. I’m fine. Everybody is fine.”

“You sure?” Patrick looks so sympathetic that Josh actually feels obligated to tell him everything.

But he doesn’t.

“I’m sure. See you in a few hours ‘Trick.” Josh climbs out and walks carefully down the sidewalk, breathing in the warm air before he yanks on the door and gets hit in the face with a large blast of air conditioning.

He also gets hit in the face by Brendon.

“God, what the hell was that?” Josh exclaims as he grasps his now throbbing nose. Brendon lets out a loud laugh before yanking on Josh’s arm and pulling him down a hallway Josh has never stepped foot in.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to _actually_ punch you in the face. But look, I was watching Tyler when he came in.”

“Yeah, that’s not creepy at all.”

“Do we want to talk about creepy Josh? Do we really?”

He sighs. “No.”

“Then shut up and listen.” Brendon continues after Josh gestures for him to. “So... yeah. He’s pretty much back to be a stuck up diva. Did he try to make out with you in the car today?”

Josh can feel his face turning red. “Uhm, yeah.”

“Wow, okay. Then this is like... for real. It’s so weird! It’s not my Tyler, but he looks like my Tyler, and he’s acting like my Tyler. I would have thought he was my Tyler.”

“But he’s not,” Josh points out. Brendon rolls his eyes.

“I know that Josh, thanks. I can’t believe you did that.”

“I got swallowed up by my stupid emotions Brendon, and you of all people would know what that’s like.”

Brendon suddenly stops and slams Josh into the wall, fury flashing in his eyes. He lets out a little bit of a growl, causing Josh’s heart to increase in speed. “What the _fuck_ did you just say?”

“N-not you,” Josh starts, his hands moving around in panic, “M-my Brendon. Sorry. Not you.”

Brendon shoves him off. “Well what the fuck did your Brendon do?”

“There was this guy,” Josh starts as he rolls his shoulders back, still trying to distance himself in case Brendon decides to randomly start throwing punches, “you know him, its Ryan R-”

“And we’re done. Back to Tyler please,” Brendon half demands, but his voice is softer. Josh realizes he’s hit a spot Brendon probably never wants to bring up ever again.

“I’m uh, gonna try to talk to that guy again, and tell him I made a mistake. If this really was all because of some stupid wish I made, then maybe I have a chance of getting it to go away?”

Brendon stops again, pulling Josh down a different hallway. “Did you guys, uh, have sex again?”

Josh nods guiltily.

“Oh Josh.” Brendon shakes his head sadly. “You know, usually I’d be all for it but after seeing Tyler’s face last time... Were you, uh, sober?”

“Yeah. It was uh, good. It was good up until I was lying awake realizing what I had done. Brendon, we have to get out of here. This place is going to mess me up. It’s already messed Tyler up. Before I gave him that stuff he wouldn’t even look at me.”

“Maybe that’s what compelled you to give it to him.” Brendon shrugs, stopping outside of a door labeled _Set B_. “Okay, here’s the set you were on when you came here. You said you were playing a show, right?”

“Yep. Middle of _Holding Onto You_. Just up and out ended here.”

Brendon scoffs. “Better get looking.”

***

“Where the fuck is Josh Dun?” Mark yells on stage, tapping his foot impatiently. Tyler stands next to him, already clad in his makeup and gear for today’s shooting, with a large grin on his face. Tyler’s selective hearing only had him hear “Fuck Josh Dun.”

Thirty seconds later Josh stumbles on stage looking like a madman, still in his street clothes. Mark grumbles under his breath.

“Jesus Josh, where the hell have you been?”

Josh runs a hand through his unruly mess of locks and tries to catch his breath before replying. “Sorry, I was uhm... busy.”

“Did you forget you have a goddamn job?” Mark drags a hand down his face. “WILLIAMS!”

Hayley is stumbling on stage in seconds, eyes full of fear that she had done something wrong. She glances at Josh before realizing he is the problem.

“Oh, there you are Josh. We were looking for you.” She points to Tyler, who winks at Josh and makes an obscene gesture. Josh’s eyes flicker to the ground, face now flushed.

“You’ve got ten minutes to get him ready for today or so help me I will do _something._ ” Mark clenches and unclenches a fist. “We are behind schedule.”

“Sure thing sir. Josh, come on.” Hayley takes Josh by the arm and drags him offstage down to his dressing room. He’s thrown into a chair, not even bothering to protest, and she’s peeling off his clothes and getting him into new ones. Josh is secretly thankful for the familiar feel of his leather pants.

“So where the hell were you this past hour?” Hayley questions as her nimble fingers rub foundation on his perspiring face. Josh scrunches up his nose.

Finding the pendant had not been as easy as he had been led to believe. That set was huge, and far too big for two people to look around each nook and corner.

It was only until Brendon noticed they had been looking for an hour and Mark was going to be “really fucking pissed” if Josh wasn’t there. So Josh had ran as fast as he could with the brief memory and knowledge of where he was going.

“I uh, got distracted.” Josh decides, knowing it’s not his best work. Hayley clucks her tongue, but says nothing more.

Until, “So, things with Tyler are better now I assume?”

“Hmm?”

“Well, he _did_ just make that uh, well...”

“Oh right.” Josh interrupts her, not wanting to bring it back up. “Yeah. Things are fine. He just had a mental breakdown.” _Talk about a bad case of deja vu._

“Sounds like Tyler to be a major drama queen. And what was that with Jenna yesterday? That was strange, even for him.”

Josh chuckles awkwardly. “Right...”

“Alright, you’re done.” she pats him on the back. “Go get ‘em tiger.”

Josh forces a smile before standing up, admiring how _normal_ he looks in the mirror right now with the red eyeshadow around his eyes and his snapback on his head. He’s clad in normal concert attire, just how he wishes it would be right now. He wishes he was getting ready for an actual show, not a set. Not something pretend.

Then his mind wanders elsewhere. Things between him and Tyler, they’re not going to be able to go back to normal, no matter how much he tries. There’s always going to be that awkwardness between them, knowing they _did_ sleep together (and if Tyler ever finds out about the second time, Josh is screwed.) and knowing they’ll have to keep it a secret. But knowing Tyler, he won’t be able to keep it a secret. He _will_ tell Jenna, and Josh isn’t sure how she’s going to take that.

This is all his fault.

***

“Cut! For the last time Josh, the line is, ‘Who on Earth pours their milk before pouring their cereal?’ It’s really not that hard!” Mark yells, an aggravated sigh following. Tyler frowns, raising an eyebrow at Josh’s terrible acting skills.

The worst part is, Josh knows his line. He just can’t say it without stuttering, or forgetting one word, or looking at the camera. He knew this was going to be terrible.

“Josh, what’s going on?” Tyler lays a hand down on his shoulder, and Josh almost flinches. Almost.

“Sorry, sorry. I’m just, distracted. Milk, cereal, okay let’s go.” he takes a deep breath. “I’m like ninety percent cereal anyways. Shouldn’t be this hard.”

“Okay! Scene Six, Take Eight! Action!”

Tyler turns towards Josh with a smirk. “Nobody wants to vote for someone who pours their milk before pouring their cereal. That’s just insane.”

“Who on Earth-” Josh shakes his head and turns towards Mark. “I’m sorry, but is this really necessary? All the lights, this conversation... I mean, would Tyler and I really get in a political debate over who the fans like better right before a show? I don’t think this is accurate.”

“It’s not real Josh,” Tyler says slowly, frustration in his voice. The first five scenes Josh had to be cut out of because he _just couldn’t do it_. Mark groans again.

“Can we please for the love of Jesus get through this scene Josh? Get through this scene and we can get to the show.”

The show. Josh knows the show like the back of his hand. He can do this. “Okay. Yes. Fine. I’m sorry. Let’s go.”

“Thank you! Alright! Scene Six, Take Nine! Action!”

Tyler’s smirk is back, but this time he reaches out and places a hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Nobody wants to vote for someone who pours their milk before pouring their cereal. That’s just insane.”

“Who on Earth pours their milk before pouring their cereal? Ah yes!” Josh fist pumps at his successful run before realizing everyone is glaring at him again. “What?”

“It’s one continuous take! You can’t just... God!” Mark throws his hands up in the air and thumps off stage, his assistant chasing after him with a mumbled “Mr. Eshleman!” escaping every two seconds. Josh licks his lips.

“Uh... whoops?”

***

The rest of the day is just as unsuccessful. As Josh is walking out, he overhears Mark ask the cameraman, “Is there anything we can use?”

“Bits and pieces,” he replies.

Josh grumbles under his breath.

And the minute Tyler and him are alone, Tyler is shoving him down on the bed, his hands practically tearing at Josh’s shirt.

“Jesus Tyler, what is going on?”

“You are so fucking hot Josh,” he replies, not really answering his question. “Today, oh my God. I don’t know why you were pretending to be so clueless but it was making me irritated and that turned me on. I’m going to fuck you so hard tonight.”

“Ah God!” Josh pushes Tyler off of him, prying his fingers away from his zipper. “Tyler, no.”

Tyler frowns. “What?”

“No, not tonight. I can’t... I can’t do it tonight.”

“You don’t have to  _do_  anything. I’m the one doing you.” He grins like he’s just made the best joke in the world, and goes back to pulling at Josh’s jeans. “Off, now.”

“Tyler-”

“Come on Josh, let’s just-”

“TYLER!” Josh yells, and Tyler pulls away, his face twisting into half confusion and half... anger maybe? No. More like one-fourth anger and one-fourth disappointment. “I can’t do this tonight, okay? No means no.”

“Oh. Okay then.” Tyler leans forward just enough to trail his fingers down Josh’s arm. “Is something up?”

 _Yes._ “No. I’m just... stressed out. Yeah. Stressed out. From work and stuff.”

“Doesn’t seem to be work that’s distracting you. You didn’t seem very focused today. In fact, you didn’t seem to understand what the hell we were doing. We didn’t even manage to get to the actual show!”

Josh scoffs. “That’s because I was still trying to figure out why the hell we would be arguing over who the fans like better. Would we really want to know that? And that forfeit! Tattooing the name of the winner on the loser?” he lets out a whoosh of air. “Who would do that?”

Tyler laughs. “You’re taking this way too seriously Josh. It’s not real. It’s just for the show, remember?”

“Right, the show.” he rolls his eyes. “Wish I was at the show.”

“Let me take your mind off of whatever is distracting you, okay? I need my attention. I don’t like when you’re distracted.” Tyler pouts, sticking out his bottom lip, and his eyes are so puppy dog wide that Josh gives in with a sigh.

“Fine. Yeah. Maybe that’s what I need, a distraction from the distraction.” But really, what is his distraction? The fact that he’s using his married friend for love and pleasure because he’s had a big fat crush on him for six years now? Is it the guilt that’s tearing at his insides? Is it the fact that he’s probably going to be stuck in this world for the rest of his existence?

“Here, lips.” Tyler lights something and the smell of weed immediately fills the room. Josh feels sick, the memory of what happened the first time presenting itself front and center in his brain. But he’s gotta pretend, gotta fake it, because that’s what he told Tyler in the first place. So Josh parts his lips and takes a drag.

Or tries too, and ends up coughing up a lung.

Tyler thwacks him on the back, grinning ear to ear. “You’re having a hard time today Joshie.”

“Shut up.” Josh mumbles as he watches Tyler smoothly place the joint between his lips and wiggle his eyebrows. They pass it back and forth for a while until Josh is starting to feel a buzz.

Then Tyler’s lips are crashing into Josh’s before he knows it, and Josh can feel Tyler’s fingers pulling at the hem of his shirt. He’s too high to care at this point, and pulls his shirt off himself.

Tyler moves his lips to the dip in Josh’s throat, tongue wetting skin before he’s nipping, and a soft moan escapes Josh’s lips.

To make a story short, it isn’t long before both of them are completely undressed.

So much for keeping things PG.

 

 


	7. 007

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't have much to say other than this is almost over!
> 
> I'm trying to finish up all the old fics and start some new ones in 2016. I've got a lot of ideas.
> 
> Stay tuned.

Josh has spent almost a month in this world now, and he’s not quite sure how much longer things are going to last.

That’s been one month with Tyler being far too sexual for his taste, one month of long hours on sets, (In which he totally flops and Mark loses his shit) photoshoots, red carpets, clubs, partying, and oh yeah, looking for that goddamn necklace. Not to mention, Tyler’s dyed his hair jet black. (Like, _goddamn._ )

He feels like he’s going to shatter into tiny pieces. Josh’s poor body can’t handle the toll being put on him. Drugs, those are hard to get used too. Absurd amounts of alcohol is different than the one to two drinks he has per month. In fact, Josh is surprised he hasn’t dropped dead from alcohol poisoning or shoved a fork into his hand or something yet.

Everyday's a new challenge for him, and every night he goes to bed exhausted. The amount of times Tyler wants to have sex is ridiculous and Josh feels more and more guiltier every damn time. He can’t find that stupid necklace anywhere. It’s almost like it has completely disappeared. Josh wonders if someone on set found it and took it not knowing the stupid crazy power it held. Josh just wants to go home. He wants his own Tyler back. He’d rather go back to watching Tyler hold Jenna’s hand and pay more attention to her than have Tyler latch onto him every two seconds. He wants his old life back.

And one day, that’s exactly what Josh tries to do.

It’s four in the morning on a Tuesday when Josh walks downstairs to find Maria in the kitchen making hot chocolate. He’s too exhausted to question why she’s awake that this ungodly hour. Maria flashes a polite smile at Josh before gesturing to the small table pushed against one kitchen wall.

“You’re up early Mr. Dun. Something bothering you?”

Josh sighs as he uses one hand to pull on the collar of his t-shirt farther up to hide a hickey Tyler had given him hours earlier. “Yeah actually. Is there anyway you can help me get an appointment or something in with your boss? I really need to talk to him.”

She frowns. “Am I not capable of helping you?”

“Unless you can get me back to my world, then no.”

“I doubt you’ll be getting back to your world anytime soon Mr. Dun. Why would you want to do that anyways? You seem to be enjoying yourself here.”

“I am falling apart. I can’t take the drugs, the alcohol, the sex… I can’t do it anymore.”

“The necklace-”

“I know about the fucking necklace!” he raises his voice, face twisting into anger before he realizes Tyler is asleep upstairs. “Sorry. But I know I have to find it if I want to go home. I have looked everywhere. It’s gone. I have no clue where it went. Do you?”

Maria shakes her head sadly. “I don’t. If I did I would be able to retrieve it for you Mr. Dun. I can tell you are living in extreme discomfort and I-” Suddenly Maria freezes, her mouth still open like she has more to say. One hand is outstretched as she was reaching for her drink, and her eyes are crinkled at the corners. Josh presses his lips together and looks around the room in confusion before he pushes out of his chair and darts out the front door. In the middle of the road is a stagnant car, and in the sky is a flock of non-moving birds.

What the hell?

“Ah, it’s very good to see you again, Mr. Dun.”

And suddenly Josh in no longer in his front yard, but in the middle of a gigantic basketball stadium. It looks familiar, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. The lights are down low, and it seems like Josh is alone until a familiar white haired man steps out from the shadows with a grin on his face.

Josh resists his urge to punch the old geezer in the face.

“Do you recognize where we are Josh?”

Josh has no clue, but he doesn’t voice his answer. Only glares and hopes the old man takes the hint.

“Madison Square Garden. I suppose you’ve heard of it?”

So _that’s_  why it looks so familiar. Josh huffs. “Yeah. I’ve heard of it.”

“You and Mr. Joseph ever played here before?”

“We planned to. Before you came and fucked everything up.” He’s done playing nice guy. “If we’re in this world, who’s in our world?”

The old man laughs loudly, obviously amused. “The two of you have been missing for several months. It made the news and everything.” he hands Josh a cell phone with an Alternative Press article describing the event. “During a show there was an electrical failure, and when the lights came back on the two of you were nowhere to be found. It was a mystical phenomenon to your entire team. Police have been looking for you everywhere, but nobody has been successful. It’s almost liked you just disappeared into thin air.” A nefarious grin flickers onto his face and Josh clenches his fists by his side. “Tsk, Tyler’s poor wife.”

“Tyler’s poor everything! Our families must be going crazy!” Josh moves his hands to grip his hair in one frustrated growl. He has more to say, but he isn’t quite sure how to phrase it.

“Everyone is very worried, I’ll tell you that. How do two grown men disappear from a stage?” the old man shrugs nonchalantly, like Josh isn’t pissed at him.

Josh growls again. “I’m fucking tired of all of this. Look, it’s been a few months since I last talked to you. I’ve dealt with everyone’s shit. I’ve done the drugs, drank the alcohol, pretended I knew how to act, let Tyler do what he wants with me. Brendon and I have looked _everywhere_  for that goddamn pendant. I can’t find it fucking anywhere, so either you’re fucking with me and have it with you, or somebody took it from the set.”

“It sure seemed to me you enjoyed Tyler’s attention. He doesn’t pay attention to you in your world.”

It has come to Josh’s attention that this isn’t entirely true. Sure, Tyler was married, but Josh was his _best friend._  Josh got to spend hours and hours of time with him every single day. He remembers the days they used to sleep in the same bed, the days they would pile into a small van with six other dudes. Tyler did pay attention to Josh, and he was just too blind to tell.

“That’s a lie,” Josh states firmly as he crosses his arms. “Tyler pays plenty attention to me. I was just being a complainer. I was being selfish and greedy because I wanted _more_  from him. I don’t need more from him if this is how it’s going to be. He’s _married._  I’m fine with being his best friend, not his lover.”

The old man appears to be speechless. Josh smiles triumphantly.

“Being stuck in this world has made me realize how good Tyler and I truly have it back home. We don’t need to be like the other bands. We don’t need to party, we don’t need to drink and do drugs, we don’t need to have sex with a bunch of other people. We are different than other bands and that’s what makes us so unique. So yeah, I’m done being stuck in this shithole of a world. So if you don’t mind, I’d like you to take us back home.”

He clenches his jaw, one hand firmly gripping the cane like it’s about to snap. Josh is a little afraid he’ll get turned into a cat or something. Surprisingly, the old man relaxes, a smirk rising to his lips.

“I’m glad you’ve learned your lesson Mr. Dun. However, I’m not going to make getting home be as easy as you would like.” the old man pulls something out of his pocket and tosses it to Josh, who recognizes the pendant immediately and sighs with relief. _Finally._  “You can use this to get home. I’m not going to tell you how it works or how you’re going to get there. I have faith you can figure it out. You’re a smart man, and that is one of the reasons I came to answer you of all other people. The human race is full of a billion different opinions and personalities. Some are smarter than others, some greedier, some more flawed. I could see you intelligence, but I could also feel your greed. I know you might hate me, but I was only trying to teach you that you need to be careful for what you wish for.”

Josh scoffs and rolls his eyes. “One, I didn’t know it counted as a wish. Two, what gave you the right to teach _me_  a lesson?”

“What gives anyone the right to teach anyone a lesson?” the old man raised an eyebrow, and Josh didn’t answer. “I’ll leave that rhetorical. Anywho, if you do figure out how to get back home, be aware that this world will go back to exactly how it was before you arrived. It’ll be like you and Mr. Joseph were never here. The same goes for your world. Once you are back, it’ll be like you never left.”

Josh nods his head. “Sounds easy enough.”

“It holds more power than you think Joshua. Be careful.” His face is dark, and his eyes seem to be glowing. Josh gulps.

“I will. Thank you for helping.” that wasn’t the first thing that came to Josh’s mind, but he doesn’t want to cause any more trouble so he leaves it there.

“Anytime Mr. Dun. I wish you the best of luck.” the old man’s eyes wander around the area, a smile once again finding its way onto his face. “Your performance here will be amazing, I can feel it.”

Josh blushes. “Er, thanks.”

“Hopefully I’ll see you again soon, but not too soon.” he winks, and seconds later Josh is back in his front yard, everything once again back in movement. He watches the flock of birds flitter against the mixing mass of blues before heading back inside. Josh fumbles with the chain as he takes the stairs two at time, a gazillion thoughts running through his head. It’s up to him to get home. It’s up to him to fix Tyler, to apologize, to correct his own wrongdoing.

He wonders how he’s going to fix his friend. The genie (if that _is_  what he was) hadn’t mentioned anything about that. Would Tyler already be fixed? Would it be as simple as sliding some sort of potion down his throat? Josh paws at his face. This is all too much for him.

Tyler is still asleep when he creeps back into the master bedroom. He has his head balanced on one arm, mouth slightly ajar as small snores escape every few seconds. Josh can’t help but smile. He messed up so badly, but he was going to fix it. Tyler was going to be alright.

“Ty,” he whispers as he gently pokes him in the cheek. Tyler grumbles and rolls over. “You gotta wake up.”

“I don’t wanna.”

“Please. For me.” Josh rubs the chain in between his fingers nervously, hoping Tyler is already back to normal. “Do you want me to kiss you?”

“Hell yes.” he rolls back over with a smirk, and Josh sighs in disappointment. He rubs the chain harder, when an idea pops into his head.

“How could I turn down that enthusiasm?” Josh plays along as he crawls back into bed and wraps one arm around Tyler’s waist. With a sigh of pleasure, Tyler presses his lips against Josh’s, fingers entangling themselves in his hair.

And then Josh slings the necklace over Tyler’s head, watching as it falls into place against his chest just like before. Josh can feel Tyler’s eyelashes against his cheek, can feel his tongue on his bottom lip, and then -

Tyler yanks away, his hands flying in the air as he tumbles off the bed. Josh peers over the edge in concern. “Uh, Tyler?”

“What the hell dude?” Tyler shakes his head in distress, eyes wide at his surroundings. Josh hears him gulp and watches his Adam’s Apple bob as he tries to figure out what is going on.

“Do you want me to kiss you?” Josh asks cautiously again, one hand out in front of him. Tyler laughs loudly.

“I think you just did.” he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, grinning as he stands up. Josh blinks. He didn’t think that was going to work. That was almost _too_  easy.

“Do...do you remember what happened?”

“What do you mean do I remember what happened?” he looks at Josh in confusion before his eyes wander back to his body. “I’m not wearing a shirt. Was I asleep?” Tyler shakes his head before he notices the pendant around his neck. “Oh my God. Oh my GOD! Where did this come from? I’m so confused.”

“Ok, slow down there dude.” Josh offers Tyler a hand and helps him back onto the bed before he clears his throat. “What do you last remember?”

“Like, after being transported off stage into another dimension where we’re actors on a TV show about our lives? ‘Cause I remember that. Everything is kinda, uh, foggy after that.”

“You don’t remember anything about being here?”

“I don’t remember anything about being here. How long have we been here? Not too long, right?” Tyler rubs his eyes. “Why were you kissing me?”

“Oh. Uh, right. There’s a reason for that.” Josh opens his mouth to say more, but he can’t think of an excuse. Tyler is staring at him waiting for an answer and Josh just can’t do it. He cracks.

“I’m so sorry Tyler, I’m so so so sorry. I did something terrible and I shouldn’t have done it and you were mad at me, you have every right to _still_  be mad at me, and I understand if you don’t want to talk to me ever again because-”

“Jish, take a deep breath.” Tyler rests a hand on Josh’s shoulder and looks at him in concern. “Don’t get yourself worked up about this. Just tell me truthfully.”

Josh sighs. “It’s my fault we’re stuck here.”

“How could that possibly be your fault?

“I made this dumb wish that I didn’t even realize would be considered to be a wish and this genie, that old dude, brought us here claiming it was all for me and then I gave you this stuff that made you think you were this world’s Tyler and-”

“You aren’t making any sense.”

Josh closes his eyes and forces himself to take a couple breaths. This really shouldn’t be so hard. _Just tell him already!_

“I’m in love with you Tyler.”

Tyler blinks a couple of times, his hands fidgeting in his lap. “What?” his voice comes out soft and it makes Josh want to run away and hide.

“When we met, I was astounded someone like you even existed in this world. You were beautiful, talented, creative, unique, and nice. And then when we started playing together, I fell in love with you. I loved our relationship. You’re my best friend. We got to spend so much time together, hell, there wasn’t a time where we _weren’t_  together, and I was perfectly okay with that. I didn’t want to ruin what we had with petty feelings. But then you met Jenna, and I got jealous. It was so stupid of me really. You were still hanging out with me; we were still inseparable. But I was jealous for all the wrong reasons. The way you looked at her, the way you talked about her… I wanted that to be me.” Josh shakes his head, disappointed in himself. He can’t bear to see Tyler’s expression. “When we started this tour, I asked someone supernatural force for a miracle. I wanted to tell you how I felt and magically have you fall in love with me.” he laughs mockingly. “Because that would totally happen.

“But we were put in this world where the two of us were dating, and then that old guy said it was all for me. So I let my greed and wants take me over and I gave you this stuff that made you think you were this world’s Tyler. God, I feel so guilty. All those things you did…” Josh trails off, his fingers shaking as he plays with a loose thread separating itself from the comforter. He feels tears starting to slide down his face. This was utterly ridiculous.

Tyler reaches out, placing his index finger gently on Josh’s chin and lifts it up. “I love you too Josh.”

Josh pulls away from Tyler in surprise. “What?”

“You’re my best friend. Why wouldn’t I love you? You’re one of the most important people in my entire life. I have no idea where I would be without you. Besides, I think the two of us are closer than Jenna and I.” he rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, red burning his cheeks even in the hazy darkness of the room. “People think the two of us are dating all the time.”

“There’s a difference,” mutters Josh.

“Josh, half the time it’s my fault. Remember that one interview where I said we shower together? Or the professionally romantic one?”

“Tyler, we had sex. Are you telling me best friends have sex together?”

He only shrugs. “I’d rather it you then someone else. Friends with benefits.”

“You’re married.”

“Jesus Josh, quit making yourself feel guilty.” he shakes his head. “I’ve never been fully straight. I don’t care. Jenna knows. She doesn’t care either.”

“You basically cheated on her.”

“I was brainwashed,” he points out.

“You were pissed at me though. You went on this whole spiel about never wanting to see me again and freaking out about the fact that we _did_  sleep together-”

“Do you think it’s easy to have a conversation with your best friend about the fact that you slept together? Or in our case, multiple frickin’ times?” Tyler interrupts bitterly. He sticks his knuckle in his mouth, biting down for a few seconds before he pulls it out of his mouth. “We both grew up in highly conservative, Christian families Josh. I grew up thinking that being gay was a sin and would land you a personalized nametag in hell. And the truth is, I was probably confused. I’ve always been confused. Being launched into a world where people suddenly look to me to raise my voice on an issue was strange and scary and exciting all at the same time. I had no right to act the way I did, even if I can’t remember it. Look Josh, you are beautiful and friendly and outgoing and you play drums like a motherfucker. I’m not lying when I tell you all of this. Whatever I said was not true. I know things are awkward and weird and a mess, but we’re going to dig our way out and go back to the way things were, even if we have to dig with spoons. Who knows? Maybe someday we’ll laugh about it.”

Josh continues to pick at the duvet. “Are you going to tell Jenna?”

“Do you think she’ll believe me when I tell her we were transported into another dimension where we are actors on a TV show about our lives and I got brainwashed into being a more sexual version of myself?”

“Er, no.”

“Let me handle that mess later Josh. As for now, we need to figure out how to get the hell out of here.” Tyler latches a hand around the pendant, tugging on it gently. “Explain how you found this again.”

“I know you didn’t believe me, but that necklace and the old man from the Antique shop in Columbus are connected. He’s the reason we’re here.”

“Yeah…” Tyler runs a hand through his hair sheepishly, “I believe you now.”

“He gave it to me and said it was our ticket home. We just have to figure out how to use it.”

“Last time we were in the middle of a show, right? It burned the hell out of my chest and then we were in actor world.”

“So I guess we need to figure out how to get it to burn you again.” Josh shakes his head at the absurdity of that statement.

“Great,” Tyler mumbles as he climbs out of bed. “We better get started. The longer I’m here the more crazy I’ll get.” Josh follows him into the bathroom, biting his bottom lip as he walks. He wholeheartedly agrees with the crazy part.

“You know, I’ll kind of miss having all these tattoos and piercings. It’ll be weird to go back to my normal-” Tyler trails off as he catches sight of himself in the bathroom mirror, Josh blushing right behind him. “self.”

“Whoops, forgot to mention you dyed your hair black.”

“I did that?” Tyler actually looks he might pass out. “Oh god, that’s going to carry on to our world, isn’t it?”

“It doesn’t look bad,” Josh offers support, but Tyler isn’t taking it. He leans his entire weight onto the marble countertop.

“We need to figure out how to get out of here.” With one last look in the mirror, Tyler turns on his heel and heads for the closet. Guess their attempt to get the hell out started now.

Josh is perfectly okay with that.


	8. 008

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So hey.
> 
> After this, we got one more chapter. And then, what I like to call JanNEWary. Prepare yourselves for bigger and better.

They try a number of different techniques, wishing, hoping, staring, throwing it across the room, but unfortunately, no cigar. With a frustrated sigh, Tyler sits down on the edge of the bed.

“There’s no way we’re getting out of here.”

“Don’t give up yet,” Josh replies, trying to be encouraging. “There’s other things we can try. We just have to think about every particular detail from the moment we left the show to the moment we appeared in this world.”

Tyler grips the chain around his neck. “That’s just the thing though. I wasn’t doing anything but performing.”

Josh shrugs. “Think harder. You could have grabbed it, touched it, anything.”

“I was about to go into the crowd… I looked down… that’s it. And then Mark was yelling cut.”

“What about before the show?”

“Like, in the green room?” Josh nods. “I kept playing with it I think. Twisting it, like it did with my ring.” Tyler wraps his hand gently around the pendant and squeezes before letting go. Josh watches carefully.

“Do it again,” Josh commands, and with a confused look Tyler obeys.

And suddenly, his hand is on fire.

Tyler pulls away with a hiss, waving his hand around through the air to try and tame the burn. A grin appears on Josh’s face.

“Oh my god.” Tyler rakes one hand through his hair in excitement. “Oh my god!”

“Don’t do it until we’re ready. We need to make sure we’re comfortable before we try anything.”

“I can’t believe that worked. Should it really be that easy? There’s got to be a catch.”

Josh shrugs. “Don’t ask me. He didn’t tell me much.”

“It’s supposed to take us straight back home, right? Right back to our world? Oh god, did we disappear from our world? Are we missing? Are people looking for us?” he begins to hyperventilate, causing Josh to gently set a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s all good Ty. Once we get back, it’ll be like we never left. Everything's a-okay. We’ll be back on stage like nothing.”

Tyler looks wary. “If we were sent to this universe, could there be other universes? Like, one big multiverse, with different versions of us? If there are multiple universes, who knows how long it’ll take for us to find the right one?” he shakes his head in fear and begins to chew on his fingernails. Josh pulls his hand out of his mouth.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen. It sent us here, it’ll send us right back. Don’t get 

all worked up, okay? We’ll be back home in no time.”

With a sigh, Tyler nods his head. “Okay. We’re good. Everything is good.”

“Everything is good,” repeats Josh.

***

Fifteen minutes later the two of them are dressed and ready to get the hell out of this place. Tyler can’t help but toil with the chain around his neck, his eyes darting around the room in worry. Josh stands next to him, one hand strategically placed on his shoulder. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t just as worried.

“It’s not going to be the same as it was arriving,” Josh warns. Tyler swallows nervously.

“I know.”

“We stay together. No way am I losing you again.”

Tyler chuckles. “Josh, I’d be dumb to wander off.”

“That’s true.”

A deep breath. “We good? Ready?”

“Hell yes. Please do the honors.”

“Ohio here we come,” Tyler whispers under his breath as he slides his hand down the chain to securely grip the pendant. He’s praying they’ll arrive safely, even when his fingers are burning.

Suddenly, the two feel like they’ve got the wind knocked out of them. Josh has his eyes squeezed shut and he feels ready to puke, but he tightens his grip on Tyler. He’s praying just as hard as him.

When the two of them feel solid ground, Josh opens his eyes to the disappointment of a normal suburban bedroom, not the familiarity of the stage. Tyler looks around as well, his hands shaking by his side.

“This isn’t the stage Josh. This isn’t the stage, which means,  _ oh my god, _ do you know what this means? It means we’re screwed. We’re honestly screwed.” Tyler gasps loudly, struggling to find breath as he collapses to the bed behind him. Josh sits down calmly next to him, but if he’s completely honest he’s just as freaked as his friend.

“Maybe he’s just messing with us. We can try again. But I at least want to know who we are in this universe.” he stands, taking one last glance at Tyler before he saunters down the hallway into the kitchen. It looks like a normal house, not a gigantic mansion, like the house Josh grew up in. He’s picking up an envelope resting on the tabletop when Tyler joins him.

“Tyler and Josh Joseph. 1415 Pine Drive Columbus Ohio, 43002,” Josh reads aloud, the words foreign on his tongue.  _ Josh Joseph _ . “It’s an electric bill.”

Tyler picks up another envelope and waves it in front of his face. “Paycheck. Looks like we’ve got office jobs.”

“And we’re married,” Josh mumbles, trying not to think about the fact that now two universes have put them together.

Tyler shivers. “That’s enough of this world. You wanna try again?”

Josh nods. “Try focusing on home, like in the Disney movies or something, I don’t know.”

Tyler scoffs, but nods his head. “Yeah, alright.” he waits for Josh to rest a hand on his shoulder once more before repeating his previous stance and waiting for that terrible “wind-knocked-out-of-you” feeling. Neither one of them can believe all of this is even real. It’s definitely been an experience.

Muffled screaming erupts when the two are back on solid ground, and the room they are standing in looks just like every other green room they’ve been in. Tyler look hopeful, up until a worker opens the door and gestures down the hallway.

“Five minutes until showtime. Tyler, I was supposed to tell you we got you another pair of sticks up there, just because of the mishap at the last venue.”

Tyler shifts his weight between feet and bites his lip. “Er, right. Thanks.”

The minute the door shuts Josh bursts into laughter as he leans against the wall. “This isn’t our world.”

“Oh, I couldn’t tell.” Tyler narrows his eyes at Josh. “Next place please.”

He points towards the sign on the door where it lists their names and positions in the band. “A world where you’re the drummer and I’m the lead singer. I don’t think anyone would like us as much.”

Tyler laughs. “Definitely not. That means you could kick  _ me _ out of the band.”

“Alright, get back on track.” he rubs at the sides of his head. “I think you were right.”

“Right about the multiverse thing?”

Josh nods. “Exactly.”

With a sigh, Tyler pinches the bridge of his nose. “What is our life, an episode of  _ Rick and Morty _ ?”

“Apparently so. Can you please take us to the next place? We’re bound to find the real one eventually, right?”

“Er… hopefully.” Tyler rubs his chin. “Nope. We’re definitely screwed Josh. We are so screwed.”

Josh rests a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Come on Ty, stay focused. We can get through this. Besides, we might want to leave before they come get us for the show. That would be a little awkward.”

Tyler takes a deep breath, nodding his head along the way. “Yeah, we’re going.”

***

They find themselves in at least ten different alternate universes including ones where the world has ended, one where Tyler ended up being a basketball player, and one where Josh is a college student majoring in psychology. The both of them are exhausted. Who knew traveling through different dimensions could be so tiring?

“One more for today. We’ll stay the night or something,” Josh states as he stifles a yawn. Tyler nods, trying to keep his eyelids from fluttering shut.

They find themselves in a grey, twisting corridor that appears to be vacant. Tyler lets out a sigh of relief. He wasn’t sure if he could deal with any other people today.

“Josh! Tyler!” a familiar voice shouts, and they turn their heads to see a grinning Brendon skipping down the hallway. A weird ringing finds itself in their ears.

“Oh boy,” whispers Josh under his breath as Brendon stops in front of them.

“Hey flame boy, I need your help lighting some torches. We were planning on doing some matches tonight.”

Josh smiles and nods, because he didn’t understand a lick of that. Why was  _ he _ flame boy? Why did Brendon need  _ his _ help? What the hell were matches? He assumed they weren’t the fire kind. “Sure. I can do that.”

“Thank you so much! We were supposed to get rain tonight, but Gabe and Keegan are working together to prevent that. So it’s on buddy boy.” 

“Gabe Saporta?” Tyler asks at the same time Josh asks “Keegan Calmes?”

Brendon nods in confusion. “Blurry messing with your heads?”

“Blurry…” Tyler repeats as he moves his hand to grip the side of his head. 

“Oh, you dyed your hair. It looks good Ty.” Brendon’s grin grows larger. “Anyways, c’mon, before it gets too dark.” he turns on his heel and begins to lead the way down the hallway.

“Oh boy, we sure picked the right world to stay the night in,” Josh mutters. Tyler grimaces as they walk behind Bren, his hand still entangled in his hair. Josh frowns. “Ty? You okay?”

“Hmm? Oh yeah. Sorry, my head is throbbing for some reason.” he shakes his head in disgust. “Light the damn torches and let’s get out of here. This one is giving me bad vibes.”

“Agreed.”

They pass a number of people as they follow Brendon, including Spencer Smith and  _ the _ Gerard Way. Josh almost dies when he passes him in the hallway, and feels himself heat up when Tyler begins to tease him.

Brendon takes them outside and through the woods, the hot air heavy on their skin. Tyler keeps mumbling under his breath, his face still masked in pain. Josh is starting to get extremely worried. None of the other worlds had given Tyler extreme headaches.

“Okay, so whenever you’re ready,” Brendon says as he pulls the torch out of the ground and points it in Josh’s direction. Josh only stares.

“Er, right. Do you have a lighter? Matches?”

“Dude, you’re literally made of fire. Quit screwing around.”

Made of fire? What the hell did that even mean?

Brendon rolls his eyes at Josh’s confused expression. “So Josh, when’s the last time you boned Tyler?”

And suddenly Josh’s skin is so hot his hands burst into flames. He opens his mouth to scream, but nothing comes out. Tyler takes a step back, his facial expression proving he is just as afraid. Brendon leads Josh around, sticking each torch into the fire. When he finishes, he dusts his hands off and smiles.

“Thanks Josh. I’ll make sure you get more pizza than the rest of us.” One smirk later, he’s gone, leaving Josh still speechless as he stares at his hands that are literally  _ engulfed in flames _ .

“What the HELL?” he finally yells, waving his arms in small circles. Tyler only shrugs.

“I don’t know! I have no idea. Can you put it out?”

“I don’t know how!”

Tyler pauses before an answer rises to his lips. “Think of something cold. Ohio! Think of Ohio.”

Josh squeezes his eyes shut and does as Tyler says. He wonders how this Josh came to be made of fire. Did he freak out about the first time too? Was he born that way? If only he could read about it.

“It worked,” Tyler says quietly five minutes later. Josh grunts under his breath.

“It would have been much easy to light a match.” he wipes his hands on his pants. “how did you even know that would work?”

“Somebody told me.” he moves in pain again, hands flying back up to his head. Josh moves to his side in seconds. “Somebody in my head. Oh my god, we need to leave right now. Please do something. I don’t care what, just do something.”

Josh reacts in seconds, pulling the necklace over Tyler’s head and stringing it around his neck instead. He reaches for one of Tyler’s hands, taking it gently in his as he uses his other hand to wrap it firmly around the pendant.

_ Home, _ he thinks.  _ Please for the love of god just take us home. _

And then there’s darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for all my references, I am trash.


	9. 009

Cheering.

That’s the first thing both of them hear. Josh reaches out and sighs with relief at the feel of his drum kit. He hears shuffling, and then,

“Josh?”

“Tyler?” He climbs over his drums, fumbling for his friend. When Tyler bumps into him, he grabs his hand.

“Are we… back home?”

A hand flies up to Josh’s chest to find the necklace has completely disappeared. “I can’t tell.”

The emergency lights come on then, and in the low light Tyler can see the crowd. The venue looks familiar, and a sigh escapes his lips. He almost collapses to the floor.

Using Josh for support, he points into the crowd. “I think we’re home. Oh my god, I think we’re home.”

“He did say there was a power outage. Should we go backstage and see what’s going on?”

“Good idea.”

Backstage, crew members are rushing around trying to figure out how the power went out. It wasn’t like it was storming or anything. In the midst of all the chaos, Josh finds Mark and calls his name. Mark places both his hands on his hips and stares at them with a huff.

“Hey you two.”

“What’s going on?” Tyler demands, pointing to the stage.

“Power’s out. Duh.”

“Yeah, thanks. Have you figured out what happened? Can it be fixed?”

“We’re working on it.” Mark grins. “Your performance so far is wonderful. The crowd is enjoying it a lot, I can tell. Not like all your performances aren’t amazing anyways.” He rolls his eyes. “Anyways, you should be able to finish in a few minutes.”

The two can only stare at Mark. It’s  _ their _ Mark.

Josh pulls him into a bone crushing hug. “I’ve missed you.”

Tyler joins in with a small chuckle. “We’ve missed you.”

“Dudes, you just saw me before the show. You’re acting like you haven’t seen me in months.”

“You have no idea,” mumbles Josh under his breath. Mark laughs.

“I missed you guys too.”

***

After the show is over, (which personally, Tyler still believed to be their best. It was like a reunion show in his opinion) him and Josh are changing in their dressing room when there is a knock at the door.

“Come in!” he yells, running a hand through his sweaty hair. Jenna appears through the crack, a large smile on her face. Tyler is frozen to the spot.

“You guys did amazing tonight!”

“Thanks Jen,” Josh replies, giving her a small side hug. He continues to pack up his stuff as Tyler continues to stare.

His bottom lip is trembling and he seems to be lost in some kind of trace. Jenna’s smile melts into a frown.

“Ty? What’s wrong?”

And then he’s full on sobbing as he pulls her into a hug. Jenna hugs back, her face masked in confusion while Josh stares, a water bottle in his hand. He should have known Tyler was going to break down at some point.

“Tyler, why are you crying?” she laughs, kissing his forehead. 

“I missed you,” he replies with a gasp, pulling her closer. She shakes her head.

“I just saw you like two hours ago.”

“Too much time.”

Jenna laughs again. “Don’t cry Ty. You’ll make me start crying.”

With a sniff, he lets go of her and wipes his nose with the back of his hand. “Sorry. Can’t help it sometimes.” A pause. “You look beautiful tonight. Did I ever tell you that?”

“Only about a billion times.” They share a smile, and Josh can feel his face turning red. He knows what he said, but Josh can’t help it.

“What can I say, I’m an emotional guy.” he grins, which slowly turns into a frown. “Can I talk to you in private for a second?”

Josh narrows his eyes at Tyler, who returns his glare with a thumbs up. Jenna nods her head and leaves the room, mumbling, “When did you dye your hair?” whereas Tyler lingers.

“What are you doing?” asks Josh.

“It’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it.” And just like that, Tyler’s out the door, leaving Josh standing there with a half-empty water bottle in his hand.

***

Josh never does find out what Tyler and Jenna had talked about that night.

The two of them fall back into the normal swing of things, enduring long shows only to crash in the tour bus afterwards. Tyler goes back to holding Jenna’s hand and laughing at inside jokes with her while Josh hardcore feels like he is third wheeling most times. Of course, there are times where Tyler focuses all his attention on Josh. He snuggles in next to him, stringing his fingers through his and sighs happily.

Josh lives for those nights.

One day in particular, Tyler and Josh are playing mario kart, Jenna watching silently from the couch. They are about two hours out from the next venue, so obviously the only correct thing to be doing is this.

“On your left,” Josh yells as he passes Tyler, causing Tyler to grunt and lean forward. He presses the button on his controller repeatedly, but it’s not helping. “You’re never going to catch up to me.”

“Oh yeah?” challenges Tyler as he gains a power up. Josh eyes the blue shell with fear.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Shouldn’t have picked rainbow road bitch!” he yells as the blue shell knocks Josh’s avatar off the road and he passes the finish line. With a groan Josh throws his controller to the ground and begins to pout.

“That’s the fifth time in a row he’s beaten you Josh,” Jenna teases, giggling behind her hands. Josh rolls his eyes.

“Tyler’s a cheater.”

He gasps. “Am not.”

“You are too.”

“Well you’re just jealous ‘cause I’m better at Mario kart than you.”

“That’s only because you’re a cheater.”

Tyler opens his mouth to say more when Jenna interrupts. “Boys boys, you’re both pretty. Ty, you mind getting me a water?”

Tyler glares playfully at Josh before nodding his head. “Sure. You want anything Josh?”

“Redbull please.”

“I gotchu.” One smile later he’s disappearing down the small hallway. Almost immediately Jenna shifts towards Josh and reaches for his hand. He looks at her in confusion.

“We don’t have a lot of time, but I wanted to let you know it’s okay.”

“What?” he rubs his head nervously.

“Tyler told me what happened between the two of you. How you uh, slept… together.” Her eyes fall to the carpet below, hair swinging in her face. Josh’s face turns the reddest it's ever been.

“Oh.”

“Look Josh, I know you and Ty had a really special relationship before I came into it. I feel like you might blame me for the lack of attention Tyler had been given you and I wanted to say I’m sorry for that. It was never my intention to take him away from you.”

“I don’t understand. Why are you apologizing to me? I’m the one Tyler  _ cheated _ on you with.”

She shrugs. “I don’t think I would call it that. He’s told me things about you Josh that people don’t normally say about their best friends. He acted sketchy, like he was disappointed in himself. I would never want Tyler to feel that way in a million years. Which is why I felt like a load was lifted off my chest when he told me what had happened. He couldn’t stop crying, couldn’t stop apologizing, even when I told him it was okay. He’s okay with that side of himself now, and that’s all that matters.”

Josh sighs with relief, a chuckle passing his lips as he rubs at his face vigorously. “Jenna, you are incredible.”

“Hey, get your paws off my wife mister,” Tyler teases as he sits back down on the couch and wraps an arm around Josh’s shoulders. Josh takes the open Redbull out of Tyler’s hand, despite there being an unopened one in his lap where Tyler had set it down. Jenna smirks as Josh drinks from the can.

“Thanks Ty.”

“Sure, go ahead and drink from mine you Dinkleberg. Here’s your water Jen.” She takes it out of his outstretched hand and downs half the thing, the smirk never leaving her lips. Tyler doesn’t seem to notice, but Josh sure does.

A lot had happened to them in the past few months that neither one would ever had expected in a million years. Yet, Josh wouldn’t change it for the world.

Because yes, a lot of shit did happen that he could have gone without, but a lot of stuff happened that made his life better. Now, he wasn’t mad at or even jealous of Jenna. His relationship with Tyler had improved. He worked harder at shows, knowing one day he and Tyler were going to be much bigger than they were now.

Josh was  _ proud _ of himself.

Sometimes he would lie awake at night thinking about all the different versions of him and Tyler, and how they were always together, how they always were meant to meet and have a relationship together. He thought about all the lives he  _ could _ have had, and the one he had now. Sure, he and Tyler weren’t like, together together, but Tyler was  _ his _ best friend, and Josh was the luckiest person in the entire world.

***

The night they played Madison Square Garden, Josh caught sight of a balding old man with snow white hair, grinning ear to ear as he leaned on his cane.

“It was amazing,” he mouthed, and Josh nodded his head.

He knew it would be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for reading this and supporting me. I really appreciate it.
> 
> Just as an update, I have two fics currently in the making that I'll most likely post sometime next week. I plan on having these ones be a little bit longer. :)


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